Fighting for Acceptance
by KnucklePuck29
Summary: Allison Faulkner just wanted to fit in. Her parents send her to preppy central, Eden Hall Academy, forcing her to leave her recreation hockey league and the friends she made on it. Will the Ducks accept her, or will she get fed up and return home?
1. Allie

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Ducks, just Allie and her parents.

Author's Note: This is my first fanfic, so go easy?

"Honey, we feel that this will be a great opportunity for you! It will get you out of that silly recreation league you've been playing on, and on top of that you'll receive an amazing education!" Mrs. Faulkner told her daughter persuasively, trying to make her see things in the proper light.

"But I love my recreation league!" Allison whined, fingering her Pleasant Creek Madrigals jersey and running her fingers over the "C" patch that was stitched onto the left chest area. "And you're making me leave all my friends, I can't really see how this is fair. I won't know anyone, no one will like me, and the hockey team won't accept me. They've all been together since they were in District Five, and I'm going to be the only newbie!"

"Oh, Allison, how could anyone not like you? You're an incredible child with a winning personality," Mr. Faulkner said, ruffling her hair and causing her to cringe.

"Dad, that's so weird," she grumbled, swatting his hand away and standing up. "Look, I'm not saying I'll like it, but I'll give this Eden Hall a try. If it's horrible, I'm coming straight home or running away. Just because you feel like pawning me off on some school doesn't mean I have to go quietly."

"We aren't pawning you off, dear! What gave you that idea?" Mrs. Faulkner adopted a stung expression, blinking up at her daughter in an attempt to seem concerned for her wellbeing.

"Oh jeez, I'm going to go pack," Allison groaned, rolling her eyes and striding off toward her room with her jersey and helmet in hand. Her parents stared after her with mixed emotions, one feeling slightly relieved and the other feeling desperate to bring her back into the room. She slammed her door shut and collapsed onto her bed, her chest heaving with dry, silent sobs as she grieved for everything she would be leaving and missing out on. No tears came, just a racking tremor that shook her whole body until she was able to recover herself.

"Gah, why me?" she asked shakily, pushing herself up and going over to her closet to fish out her suitcase. Once she found it she went to work gathering everything she could possibly need at a boarding school, including shampoo and other toiletries, before carefully folding her prized recreation league jersey and placing it on top of her other clothes. She'd been a part of the Madrigals since she was eight, playing Pee-Wee hockey with a team of six boys and three other girls, and had stuck with them until she was the only girl left, and captain to boot.

"Allison, we're leaving in five minutes!" her mother called through her door, not bothering to barge in and get snapped at. Allison's eyes clenched shut and she took a deep breath, resigning herself to this fate and zipping her suitcase shut. When her eyes reopened, she cast them around the room to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything important, stopping when she reached her bookcase.

"May as well bring some entertainment for those long days of being alone," she sighed, grabbing a backpack from her closet and packing it full of books, some she'd read and some she hadn't. After she'd filled it, she unzipped the front pocket and slid her iPod and its accessories in. Her laptop and its charger were already in their bag, so she shouldered the pack and slipped the laptop case over the handle of her rolling suitcase.

"Come on, dear, we wouldn't want to be late for your meeting with the dean! He said you'd be meeting your dorm advisor this afternoon!" her mother yelled from the entrance to the garage, cutting short the minutes Allison thought she had.

"Bye, room. Bye, life. Let me know how it is from the other side of the gilded cage bars, all right?" she asked dismally, exiting her room and closing the door behind her. She rolled her suitcase toward the garage entrance and tugged it awkwardly down the stairs, trying to keep it from tipping over before she could toss it into the trunk of their SUV.

"Don't look so gloomy, Al, it's going to be a good experience," her father told her quietly, picking her things up and fitting them snugly between her new bedding and the side of the car. "You'll have fun, I promise."

"Yeah, and you also promised I'd finish out high school in Edina, but here we stand," she retorted grumpily, stalking over and getting into the backseat behind the driver. Her mother gave her a weak smile as they pulled out of the driveway, a failed attempt at camaraderie that Allison ignored. After this dismissal, she sighed tiredly and reached out to take her husband's hand, exchanging a meaningful look with him.

The ride to Eden Hall was shorter than Allison had expected, and it shocked her when they turned the corner and drove through a large arch that said EDEN HALL ACADEMY in large block letters. The campus sprawled over many acres of land, more than she'd ever seen outside of a college, and she shuddered to think how difficult it would be if she had classes in different buildings. She had a feeling that she'd be spending a lot of time between classes running as fast as she could with a heavy book bag on her shoulders.

"Nice, isn't it?" Mr. Faulkner asked, parking in a graveled lot beside a building marked OFFICE in the same block letters as the Eden Hall sign. She grumbled her assent and got out of the car, slamming the heavy door behind her and walking toward the door.

"Darling, be nice when we talk with the dean, will you? It wouldn't do if you acted this way when he meets you," Mrs. Faulkner pleaded, closing her own door and walking up to her daughter. Allison made a sarcastic face and went inside, instantly being bombarded with freezing air that smelled like the inside of a very clean air conditioning system. She shied from the blast of coolness, used to the fresh, if not muggy, summer air that was just outside the door.

"Hello! You must be Allison, right?" the secretary asked brightly, shuffling some papers around on her desk before picking up a file and opening it. "I've got your schedule here and a note from Coach Orion, who will be your new hockey coach. The dean is so pleased to have another girl on the team, it balances things out."

"Uh, t-thanks," Allison stammered, taken aback by this woman's forwardness, and took the papers that were extended to her. Looking down at her timetable, she felt relieved that she had all the same classes she'd signed up for at her other high school, Edina Public, and let out a sigh that took the tension from her shoulders.

"Oh, and the dean asked me to tell you that he is unable to speak with you this morning, but he will call you about a rescheduled appointment," the secretary told Mr. and Mrs. Faulkner, smiling falsely and trying to look apologetic. "If you like, you can go on home and I'll take miss Allison here to her dorm room. You don't have to stay for the trivial stuff."

"All right then, we'll leave you to it! Goodbye, Allie, dear," Mrs. Faulkner said in a sickly sweet voice, leaning over to drop a kiss on Allison's head. She dodged it effectively and scowled, walking outside and popping the trunk so she could retrieve her things.

"Good luck, call us when you get settled with the team," Mr. Faulkner said, smiling weakly and getting into the car as she wheeled her suitcase in the opposite direction. Allison didn't look back at him, merely raised her hand in goodbye and continued on her way to meet up with the secretary, who was already halfway to the dorms.

"Right, now that we've gotten rid of your parents, we can have some fun," the secretary whispered conspiratorially, winking and pursing her lips to hide her smile. Allison grinned and followed her into the girls' dorm building, secretly thinking that it didn't seem so bad at Eden after all. "Okay, here we are. Room 808. You'll be by yourself, but there are so many girls on your hall it won't seem that way. Can I help you with anything else, or do you just want to get settled?"

"Can you tell me where the hockey rink is?" Allison asked, entering her room and putting her things down. "I wanted to skate around a bit before I met the team at five."

"Oh, sure, it's two buildings down, on the left. You're welcome to use it whenever you want, as long as the varsity team isn't practicing. They have a small rivalry going on with the JV, so I would steer clear of them unless you have someone with you," the secretary told her, smiling and walking out before Allison could ask any more questions.

Puzzled, she opened her suitcase and pulled out her Madrigals jersey, slipping it on after she'd removed her t-shirt, and then grabbed her hockey skates. She put her hair up into a loose ponytail and then left the dorm building for the rink. The sidewalks lined with trees were empty, troubling her a bit, but she pressed on anyway and found the arena with no difficulty, entering the unlocked door and closing it quietly behind her.

When Allison emerged into the cool rink area, she sighed in relief and breathed in the air that smelled fresh and somehow like ice, though she wasn't sure ice technically had a smell. With no hesitation, she sat on a bench and slid her feet out of her shoes so she could put on her skates. She yanked the laces as tight as they would go and relished the feeling of the boot pressing in on her foot. As soon as she stepped onto the ice, she was home again, flying as fast as she could go around the rink. Home was anywhere she could get on the ice, and it truly didn't matter whether her parents were there or not.

Allison circled the rink four or five times to stretch out her legs, pumping them long and hard as she flew around the corners and sprinted the straights. After she was warmed up, she went backwards and practiced her edge work, skidding to a stop at one of the benches and taking the time to look around.

State championship banners hung all across the ceiling, showing how well the varsity team actually played, and stadium seating went almost all the way to the windows that lined the ceiling like crown molding. An enormous Duck symbol was poking up through the ice, the frowning mask glaring up at the Warrior banners as if it knew that they represented its opposition, and the words Eden Hall Mighty Ducks surrounded it. Allison skated around the symbol many times, leaning down and running her fingers along the red circle until they were freezing cold and matched the school color. Eyeing the goal, Allison grinned and skated over, her hands held as if she had a hockey stick in them.

"Allison Faulkner gunning for the goal! No one's even close, she's on a breakaway. Boy, that goalie had better watch his back and keep his stick ready, she's going hard! She dodges right, then left! Oh, spinning move and she scores! The crowd goes wild!" Allison said in an announcer's voice, raising her arms over her head and roaring as if she were an audience. Smiling from ear to ear, she decided to practice some flips she'd learned in figure skating when she was young.

Just as she leapt into the air and twisted, the doors banged open and the Eden Hall Varsity Warriors strode into the rink, gear in hand. She landed her stunt and stood up straight, watching their progress as they approached the entrance.

"Hey, who are you?" their captain called, shoving the door to the rink open and gliding onto the ice. "We have practice in here, sweetheart, so you've gotta go."

"You must be the varsity team," Allison responded innocently, skating over to him and staring up into his face. "I'm Allie Faulkner, just transferred from Edina Public." She stuck out her hand and he glanced at it before taking off his glove and shaking with her.

"What brings you to Eden?" he asked when they'd finished their pleasantries, nodding for his team to begin practice without him. They skated off and started passing the puck around, goofing off while their captain wasn't watching.

Allie grinned and walked off the ice, taking off her skates and replacing them with her shoes before answering him. "I'm the new first line scorer for the JV team. Meet your competition." With that, she left the rink area and explored the changing rooms and the snack areas, biding her time until she was supposed to meet her new team.


	2. Duck Vision

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Ducks, just Allie!

Author's Note: Second chapter! Woot! Thanks to those who reviewed the first, the advice you gave really helped! I forgot to mention in the first chapter that this was Sophomore year for the Ducks, and I'm writing it like it's taking place in 2008, because, frankly, I was three when the movies were made and really have no idea what the nineties were like. It's easier for me to write it this way, and I like my iPod, so yeah…. Oh! And this chapter is in the Ducks point of view, because I wanted to give you their perspective on getting a new teammate. Phew! Now, on to the story!

"Dude, I still can't believe we're getting a new player!" Dean Portman exclaimed angrily, slamming his fist onto the table where he and the rest of the Ducks sat eating a late lunch in Charlie's mom's diner. Fulton nodded his agreement and took a mighty swig of Coke before tucking back in to his meal with hearty vigor.

"Yeah, well, start believing. The dean decided we needed another chick on the team, for balance and all," Charlie replied sullenly, poking around at his burger with a fry. "No offense, Con and Jules, but we don't need any more girls."

"None taken, we don't want anyone new either," Julie told him, sipping at her chocolate shake calmly and looking placid as always.

"Oh yeah, Catlady, you look pissed as hell," Goldberg mumbled sarcastically, raising his eyebrows and stabbing viciously at his piece of cheesecake with his fork. She shot him a glare and threw her napkin at him, hitting him square in the nose. "Hey!"

"Guys, stop it! We don't need any problems on top of this new girl!" Adam Banks sighed and rested his chin on a fist, watching his friends begin a small scale food fight despite his attempt at peacemaking. No one ever listened to him when he said they'd all be better off if they could just get along.

"Gee, Cake Eater, someone who didn't know you might think you were depressed or something," Averman said genially, clapping him on the back and causing him to glare. Okay, he thought, maybe getting along is impossible.

"Shut up, Averman," he growled, pushing his head away and making him fall over into Guy and Connie. "What time are we supposed to go meet her again?" he asked, looking at Charlie, who was the only one not fighting with some type of eating utensil.

"Uh, five I think. Means we should probably start heading back to the campus," Charlie answered, standing up and tossing some money down onto the table. The other Ducks followed suit, exiting the small diner and walking slowly back towards the Eden Hall grounds. "Come on, guys, pick up the pace. At this rate, she'll have had the time to meet us, varsity, the dean, and half the alumni board!"

"That's the point, Captain," Guy replied, hooking his thumbs through his belt loops and falling back to walk beside Connie.

"You think this girl will be Duck material?" Dwayne asked in his usual drawl, putting his hands on his belt buckle and looking around expectantly.

"She'd better be, otherwise she's gonna have a hell of a time," Russ scoffed, adopting the kind of expression he got when he was trying to think of some sort of insult. "In fact, I'd say she's royally screwed if she ain't got skills."

"How hard of a time are we going to give her before we can accept her?" Luis looked down as everyone turned toward him, staring at him as if he'd just grown three heads. "What? We've got to sometime. Look at the team that came out of the Goodwill Games!" he cried defensively, throwing up his hands in submission.

"You're just saying that because she's a girl, and since that cheerleader graduated you've got no girlfriend. Or game, for that matter," Julie pointed out scathingly, narrowing her eyes at him and crossing her arms. Everyone laughed and started knocking at Luis playfully, hitting him in the ribs and head.

"Mindy doesn't even matter to me anymore!" Luis exclaimed, huffing angrily.

"Stop arguing, we need to present a united front when we meet our new player," Charlie butted in, putting a hand on Luis's chest to make him stop heading for Julie in a menacing manner. "I don't know, just stop arguing for a while and we'll see who this girl is," he said, sounding halfway between confused and frustrated.

"I heard she's gotten kicked out of all the other private schools she's gone to for fighting," Kenny Wu said, interrupting everyone's anger with gossip.

"Ha, yeah right. I heard she slept with half her team before the coach found out and dumped her," Russ countered, grinning as he settled into his element.

"You're both wrong, she's not tough enough to play regular hockey so they had to move her to a private school," Julie scoffed, exchanging a look with Connie that said she was in for a rude awakening.

"Whatever she did to get here, she doesn't belong on our team," Fulton said, shaking his head and crossing his arms.

"We're starting to sound like the varsity," Connie commented offhandedly, earning herself glares from the rest of the team. "What? We are, don't deny it. 'She doesn't belong on our team?' Come on, guys, I know we aren't that mean. I, for one, am excited to have another girl on the team." Everyone ignored her and turned back to gossip about their new teammate with renewed vigor.

"Man, this was supposed to be the Year of the Duck," Portman growled, clenching his hands into fists. "It's my first full year, the team's gonna be totally kick-ass, but they saddle us with a new player? That's bull."

"I know, Portman, but that's the way it's gonna be. No one's asking you to marry the chick," Guy said supportively, nudging Dean in the side with his elbow. He backed away quickly when Dean glared down at him, gritting his teeth angrily and giving him a daring look.

"Try that again, Germaine, seriously!"

"Shut up, boys," Connie sighed exasperatedly, rolling her eyes as they walked through the Eden Hall arch and headed toward the rink. They'd been instructed to meet in the locker room at five so they could meet their new teammate with Orion, so they entered the arena through the back hall that had both the locker rooms and the laundry room on it.

"What do you think she'll be like?" Dwayne asked as they neared the locker room door.

"Sheesh, what is this? A blind date?" Fulton returned testily, pushing the door open and walking into the familiar room. "Okay, so she's not punctual. Surprise."

"I guess we wait, then," Charlie said, sitting on the stool in front of his locker and hunching over. The rest of the Ducks followed suit, settling in for an unspecified amount of time until their new teammate showed up. While they waited, they put on their skates and grabbed their sticks, preparing to see how well this girl matched up with them.

"All right, Ducks, here's how it's gonna be," Coach Orion boomed as he walked into the room, crossing his arms and staring out at his team. "We've got a new player coming over from Edina Public, best scorer on her recreation league, and I expect you to give her a nice welcome. I don't want to hear about any of you hazing this girl, or whatever it is you kids do to make each other miserable. That's for the varsity, and I expect better from you. Got that?"

"Yeah, Coach," the team chorused, rolling their eyes and nudging each other conspiratorially.

"Good. She's waiting at the rink, so let's go." They all got up and walked off toward the rink behind the coach, each with a grumpy expression on their face. When they entered the stadium area, they saw that the varsity was circling the ice for cool down laps, and couldn't see anyone sitting in the stands.

"Where is she?" Charlie asked Orion, casting around for the girl.

"Conway, what makes you think I can see her if you can't?" Orion barked in reply, staring stiffly ahead. Suddenly, a petite girl walked quickly around the corner of the rink and sped past them, her eyes fixed determinedly on the ground. She was holding a pair of skates and wearing a hockey jersey with the last name Faulkner on the back, though none of the Ducks could believe that this girl could be their new teammate.

"Okay, so I'm confused," Banks whispered to Fulton, both their eyes trained on the girl's retreating figure. Fulton nodded and nudged Portman in the ribs with his stick, turning toward him and shrugging.

"Dude, that cannot be the chick," Dean muttered, raking his eyes over her slender frame. "She's too freaking tiny. She'd get crushed if someone checked her into the boards."

"You'd be surprised what girls can take," Connie told him angrily, exchanging an exasperated look with Julie and nodding. They gritted their teeth and brought their sticks down on the Bash Brothers' insteps, not doing much damage but making their point nonetheless. Portman and Fulton sighed, rolling their eyes at the pair of feminists, before returning their attention to the girl, who was almost at the other end of the rink.

"Faulkner! Front and center!" Coach Orion called, cupping a hand around his mouth. She whipped her head around and caught sight of the team, blinking in confusion. They all shifted their weight around, leaning on their sticks and crossing their arms to look as tough as possible. Only Connie, Dwayne, and Luis stayed as they were, prepared to get to know the girl before they made judgment on her.

"She was on first line for her team, but we'll test her abilities tomorrow," Orion told them quietly as she made her way over to them, attempting to placate his malevolent team.

"Ha, recreation ain't nothing. We'll see how good she is when she goes up against real players," Russ scoffed, laughing with Averman and knocking the back of his hand into Adam's chest. Adam stiffened and looked his competition up and down. He was first line material, but she sure wasn't.


	3. Competition

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks, but Allie is mine.

Author's Note: Okay, so third chapter! I'm really liking this story, and I'm happy with the direction it's going in. Reviews are much appreciated, they let me know if you like what I'm doing! Back to Allie's point of view, and we get a bit of an idea of how she measures up to our darling Ducks…

Allie paced slowly around the outside of the rink, alternating between looking at the floor and watching the varsity practice. Where was the team? It was five fifteen and no one had entered the arena since she'd returned from exploring the facility.

"What're you waiting around for, JV loser?" the captain jeered as he passed her, forgoing his former mask of politeness and mocking her outwardly.

"Your dazzling wit to strike me dead," she snapped, walking slightly faster and keeping her head down to the floor. The varsity continued to harass her as she turned the corner, going as quickly as she could toward the other side, and she continued on along the straight of the rink, swinging her skates back and forth by their laces.

"Faulkner! Front and center!" a voice called from behind her, causing her to whirl and face the speaker with a confused expression. A tall blonde man with a terrible haircut stood at the entrance to the locker room hallway, his hands on his hips and a clipboard tucked under his arm. Twelve kids her age stood behind him with their arms crossed, shooting her glares from under their lashes and looking particularly angry. The man leaned over and whispered something to the team, causing a ripple of assent or anger, which it was she couldn't tell. Two boys started nudging each other and laughing.

"Coach Orion?" she asked, walking over and setting her skates down on the nearest bleacher. He nodded gruffly and looked her up and down in a critical manner. "Um…hello?"

"Ducks, this is your new teammate: Allison Faulkner," Coach Orion said to the kids behind him.

"Actually, I prefer Allie," she said quietly, puzzled at the hostile looks she was getting.

"Right, well, practice is at six-thirty tomorrow morning. Be ready and in full gear by then, we'll see what you can do." With that, Orion walked away toward his office on the other side of the rink, leaving Allison standing with her new team. While the face-off began, Varsity came off the ice and headed for their locker room, grinning evilly at Allie over the Ducks' heads.

"So…you're the Ducks?" she asked lamely, casting around for a friendly face.

"Isn't that obvious? I'm Charlie, captain of the Ducks," a tall boy with brown hair told her, stepping forward and using his height to intimadate her. She merely stared up into his face with a calm expression, waiting for the rest. He scowled when he realized he hadn't fazed her and turned back to his team, nodding in her direction and stepping away.

"Greg Goldberg, goalie extraordinaire," a short, pudgy teen said with a flourish, smirking with pride as he extended a hand. Allie shook it tentatively, puzzled at his sudden change of heart, and gave him a weak smile.

"And I'm Julie Gaffney, the official goalie for the Ducks," a blonde girl explained with a harsh look at Goldberg. She offered no hand to Allie, and her expression was still fairly hostile, though more placidly so than the rest of the team.

"My name's Connie," said the other girl on the team, smiling as kindly as she could and thusly becoming the nicest person on the team in Allie's eyes.

"Nice to meet you," Allie replied, grinning prettily with all her teeth and twinkling eyes.

"Dean Portman, Bash Brother, at your service, sweetheart," the tallest, bulkiest boy on the team told her slimily, winking. She scowled along with the rest of the team, wrinkling her nose at his smarminess.

"Portman, shut up!" they all chorused, rolling their eyes.

"Ugh, ignore him, we sure do," Connie whispered to her, an expression of disgust on her face.

"I'm Fulton Reed, second Bash Brother," another tall guy told her, lifting his chin in greeting before lumbering off toward the ice. The rest of the team followed, entering the rink and skating off towards the center in sync.

"Let's see what you've got, Transfer," Charlie called over his shoulder, clapping one boy she hadn't met on the back.

"Oh great, I've already got a fun little nickname," she muttered to herself, walking back over to where she'd dropped her skates and sitting down to put them on. The Ducks, meanwhile, skated around the Eden Hall symbol, clacking their sticks against the ice and talking to each other in low tones so she couldn't hear what they were saying.

When her laces were tied tight enough, she stood and glided out onto the ice, veering off to the right so she didn't run into the circling group. Though she was worried about what they might do to her, she was happy enough to skate around for a minute or so until they realized she was ready. Suddenly the circling stopped and Charlie turned to face Allie, tipping his head to one side cockily and resting his weight on his stick.

"As the first part of your initiation," he started with a smirk back at his team, "we, the Ducks, challenge you to a little game of Three-Bar." A collective snicker broke out among the team, but Connie had a worried, sympathetic look on her face that didn't help comfort Allie one bit.

"I'm not playing against all of you, first off," she replied, skidding to a stop in front of one of the goals. "And second, I don't have my stick with me. It's back in my room."

"We didn't expect you to play all of us, just Banksie," Goldberg told her smugly, reaching up and mussing a tall blonde kid's hair.

"Yeah, and you can borrow my stick," Charlie offered with a grin, holding it out under the guise of being helpful. Allie looked around at the other players for a minute, trying to look for a weak link, someone to get her out of this, but skated forward when she couldn't find anyone. She took the stick from Charlie, wrapping her fingers around the tape at the top, and weighed it critically. It was a little heavier than the one she used, but she figured she'd have to deal.

"Okay, I guess." She sighed and skated backwards to the blue line, hunching over into her defensive stance. "Let's go." The blonde kid moved towards her, receiving slaps on the back and nudges into the ribs by the rest of the Ducks, and pulled a puck out of his pocket.

"I'm Adam Banks. You want first possession?" he asked, holding out the little cylinder of black rubber and touching his stick to the line of scrimmage. Shrugging, she accepted the puck and switched positions with him, dropping it between them.

"On three?" He nodded. "Right. One, two…three!" she called, slapping sticks with him once and knocking the puck to her right, cradling it with her stick. Her legs pumped fast as she sprinted for the goal, knocking her shoulder into Adam's right arm to keep him away, and she wound her arms back, slapping the puck against the first bar.

"Ha, I'll give ya one," Banks laughed, using his stick to retrieve the puck and guiding it back to the line of scrimmage. She made a face at him and they slapped sticks once more, this time with him taking possession. She fought hard to get the puck back, ramming her shoulder into his side repeatedly, but he was much bigger than she was and skated onward. The sound of wood hitting wood echoed through the arena as she tried to get the puck away from him, but he was simply too good. As the puck clanged against a bar, she sank down onto her haunches and breathed heavily.

"Had enough already?" someone called from the middle of the Ducks, causing laughter to filter through the group. Allie gritted her teeth and stood, skating over to where Banks was hovering over the puck. He grinned at her unrepentantly, his blue eyes twinkling with love of the game, and tapped his stick against the ice.

"Ready?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah," she replied through clenched teeth, hitting his stick and slipping the puck from between them, pushing it to her left. She spun around and dribbled back and forth, trying to outrun him instead of out fight him. Before she could raise her stick and shoot, Banks stole it away and pushed it behind his back, letting it slide up on his left side before shooting and hitting another post. One to two. The Ducks cheered and he smirked down at her, collecting the puck and placing it back at the scrimmage line for another go.

"You sure you were the top scorer in your league?" he teased as she skated up to him. She scowled at him and pushed some stray strands of her brown hair from her narrowed eyes.

"Almost as sure as I am that I'm going to hate it here," she answered. He laughed and they slapped sticks again, ending with him getting possession for a second time. Allie skated forward quickly, getting low for leverage, and cut into his path, knocking him head over heels and giving her the puck back. He got back up as she took it to the blue line, rolling his shoulders backward and looking bewildered.

"Nice move. You know, for such a tiny person and all," he said.

"Tiny has nothing to do with it," she grunted, kicking the puck forward with the blade of one skate and getting back into the game. Banks reached in with his stick and stole the puck from under her, dodging around her and sprinting hard for the goal. Even though she was fast, she wasn't fast enough, and the puck sailed into the goal and knocked into the third bar with a clean little ding.

"And that's how you win Three-Bar, Duck style," Charlie chuckled, shaking his head at her.

"Ha ha! Nice try, poser!" the same kid who'd heckled her called out, slapping Banks on the back and sticking his tongue out at her in a childish gesture. The "Bash Brothers" laughed at her as she sank down to her knees, causing her jeans to soak through and make her shiver.

"See you for practice tomorrow, better luck next time," Banks said, tipping a nonexistent hat in her direction and then filing off the ice with the rest of the team. Connie and one of the boys that hadn't introduced himself skated over to her, extending their hands to help her up.

"Don't worry about it, Charlie had you face the best player on the team. It wasn't fair," Connie told her sympathetically, pulling her up when Allie had taken her hand.

"Only me," Allie groaned, tilting her head back and dropping Charlie's stick. "Well, whatever. Captain Duck can get his own freaking stick for all I care." She looked up at the boy, who was smiling happily down at her and looking positively too sweet for words.

"Hey, I'm Dwayne. Sorry about what Charlie did back there, he ain't usually like that." He stuck out his hand and she shook it, grinning back and appreciating his kindness.

"Nice to meet you. I guess I should go get some dinner before the cafeteria closes," she said, taking her hair down and running a hand through it.

"We'll go with you!" Connie brightened and tugged her off the ice with Dwayne in their wake, ignoring her protests. "Oh, come on, you'll need someone to sit with! Besides, do you really want your head to be the only one the Ducks are glaring at?"

"You're right," Allie laughed, shaking her head from side to side and grabbing her shoes on their way to the locker room.

"Just gotta put our skates and sticks back, then we can go dig in! I'm sure they're having something spectacular," Dwayne said sarcastically, sitting down on the bench in front of what Allie assumed was his locker and unlacing his skates. She and Connie followed suit, and she found out her locker was all the way at the end of the row, by the bulletin board. A new jersey with her name stitched onto the back was hung on a peg, and her pads and team shorts were sitting on the top shelf.

"This really all mine?" she asked incredulously, fingering the purple shorts and admiring the new pads. Connie and Dwayne nodded, sharing a smirk at her awe, and slid on their shoes. "Okay, let's eat!" They laughed and walked out of the locker room and down the hall the way the Ducks had entered, heading for the cafeteria building across the way.

"Hey, don't worry about the team, they'll come around eventually. Once you get to know 'em, they're the best friends anyone could have," Connie told her as they entered the lunch room, noticing the dirty looks the team was sending their way.

"Yeah, and apparently before you know them they're the worst enemies." Allie turned away but felt their glares on her back, burning through her surname that was printed on her jersey. They entered the line and scooped up a bit of everything, though Allie and Connie avoided the turkey fries that looked less than appealing.

Connie and Dwayne led her over to the Duck table, though she protested heavily, and sat at the end next to Banks and an Asian kid that was later introduced as Kenny, leaving Allie to pull out the seat next to Connie and hope to God that Banks didn't tease her anymore. Conversation was pointedly drawn to last season, in which the Ducks dominated after they reformed and got used to Orion, and closed any doors that were left open for Allie to join in, if she'd wanted to.

"So, Allie, what's your old team like?" Connie asked, making her look up from where she was moving macaroni around on her plate.

"The Madrigals? They were, um, pretty much the best friends I've ever had. We've played together since we were eight," she replied, picking up her green apple and taking a crunching bite out of it. "At first there were three other girls, but they dropped out in separate years. My best friend, Emily, left last year, right after I got named captain."

"You were captain?" Dwayne asked loudly, causing half the team to turn around in their seats and face her. She swallowed hard, getting rid of the last of the apple, and met their stares.

"Yeah, last year and this year. I worked hard, got better every year, and finally the coach saw that," she answered, turning away and closing off the subject. Her long hair formed a curtain between her and the rest of the table, and she picked at her food without much intention of eating it.

"You're from Edina, right?" She picked up on Adam's voice out of the rest, looking up at him and nodding silently. When he didn't say anything else, she raised an eyebrow. "Me too."

"So you're the Adam Banks my dad always talked about," she stated, nodding and pushing her chair back. "Best player in the league, went to the Goodwill Games. How nice for you." With this she stood and grabbed her tray, sending a smile in Connie and Dwayne's direction before leaving the table and tossing her trash away.

Ending Note: Let me know if you have any problems with this chapter, I was going to have my friend read it first to check on its reality factor but she kind of has no internet now and is five or six states away. Anything's appreciated, just let me hear from you!

Thanks to my reviewers, you guys totally rock! I'm glad I'm getting a positive response to this!


	4. Breakfast Talk

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks, but Allie is pretty much mine.

Author's note: Sorry for the bit of a wait, I was having trouble deciding how to set up the chapter with the practice in it. Thanks again to my amazing reviewers! In regards to that, I suppose I didn't make myself very clear in the first chapter. The conversation Allie was having with her parents was supposed to be one in a long line of them, just kind of a last minute discussion. She didn't just find out she was going, but she did finally realize it was a firm decision. Also, this is just my interpretation of the Ducks and those affiliated with them, I'm not going to be spot on with their characters, especially right away. I appreciate anyone pointing out flaws to me, it helps hone my writing skills and it keeps you guys, the most important part, happy! Okay, one last note. I should have another chapter up--and _hopefully_ it'll be a long one--tomorrow or the next day, depending on how my driver's ed class goes. I'm driving! All right, I'm done boring you guys! Here's the chapter, and again, sorry for the wait.

PS-- Reviews? Yep, they are pretty much guaranteed to rock my socks...

* * *

"Good morning, Minneapolis! I'm Billy Norman with traffic, and it's five thirty--" Charlie pounded his fist against his alarm clock, cutting off the overly peppy voice of the newscaster. Sitting up and stretching, he yawned widely and glanced at his roommate out of the corner of his eye. Already out of bed and half dressed for practice, Adam was almost annoying in his ability to get up in the morning.

"Ready for another practice, Adam?" Charlie asked sleepily, rubbing the corners of his eyes to get the crust out of them. He kicked the sheets back and swung his legs over the side of the bed, beginning his usual morning routine of seeing exactly how long he could delay the process before Adam threw something at him and ordered him to hurry up.

"Been training all summer, sure hope I'm ready," Adam replied, pulling a t-shirt over his head and cracking his knuckles. He grabbed his duffle bag out of the bottom of the closet and tossed it onto his bed, unzipping it. Taking a polo shirt and a pair of jeans off their hangers, he folded them up and dropped them into the main compartment for after practice.

"Can't believe we're sophomores, and still at this stuffy school too. First day of classes. You think the Ducks will be together again, like last year?" Charlie was still sitting on the edge of his bed, running a hand through his messy brown hair and feeling around for the light switch by the nightstand. He turned to look back at his friend and found a wadded up pair of shorts flying at his face, noticing them too late to dodge effectively.

"Get up, we've got practice in less than an hour." Adam grinned at him as he peeled the basketball shorts from his face, throwing them down onto the floor and standing up with an expression of mock anger on his face.

"You better be glad we need you, or I swear you'd regret that," Charlie snarled, striding across the room and grabbing Adam into a headlock. They laughed for a minute and wrestled back and forth, biding their time until they had to go to the rink. Finally, Adam wriggled out of Charlie's hold and threw a playful punch at his stomach.

"Seriously, get dressed. Orion will blow up if we show up late for the very first practice of the season," he said, going over to the mirror and attempting to smooth down his wild hair.

"Dude, are you kidding me with that? We're going to hockey practice. You know, the place where you wear a helmet, get sweaty, and get slammed around by Portman? Why are you messing with your hair now?" Charlie scoffed, slipping into a pair of shorts and taking one of his shirts off the floor, sniffing it before putting it on.

"Dunno, force of habit," Adam muttered, flattening one cowlick with his palm. "We gonna go get breakfast first or what?"

"Yeah, sure, just let me grab my school clothes," Charlie agreed, taking some clothes that wouldn't be considered too nice, but not too shabby either, off their hangers and stuffing them unceremoniously into his own duffle bag.

Shouldering their bags, the two boys exited their dorm room and strode down the hallway past the other Ducks' rooms, rapping their knuckles on the doors to announce their departure. When they emerged from the building, it was still fairly dark, a lighter blue infiltrating the navy that stretched across the campus. The trees were dark against the morning sky, lining the way to the cafeteria. A lone figure walked the path ahead of them, a duffle bag poking out from its hip, and Charlie grinned.

"Hey, Dwayne!" he called, cupping his hands around his mouth for volume. The figure stopped moving and turned, waiting for them to catch up. When they reached him, he began walking again and fell into step between them.

"How's it going, guys?" Dwayne asked, hooking his thumb around the strap where it was stitched to the bag and tapping his fingers against the fabric.

"Pretty good, you?" Adam returned, glancing up through his lashes and keeping his head tipped downward. Dwayne shrugged noncommittally and shouldered open the cafeteria door, noting that it was empty except for Connie, Julie, and Allie. They were already halfway through their meal, talking quietly and picking at the food still on their plates. Well, Dwayne observed, Connie and Julie talked to each other and, occasionally, Connie could coax a comment out of Allie.

* * *

Allie picked around at her scrambled eggs, nudging them around her plate with her fork, and listened to the conversation Connie was having with Julie. She knew that if she didn't listen, she'd end up caught not knowing what to say when Connie asked her a question out of the blue, trying to encorporate her in the dialogue. The door to the cafeteria opened and Dwayne, Charlie, and Banks walked in, noticing the girls quickly and starting over. She bent low over the table, pretending not to have seen them, and wished she'd left her hair down to shield her face.

"Hey there, girls!" Dwayne chirped happily, grinning and setting his bag down on the floor next to Allie's. She looked up at him and smiled weakly, her heart not really in it, before going back to her eggs, scooping some up and popping them into her mouth.

"Hi, Dwayne," Connie and Julie chorused, putting their forks down on their trays and looking up at the new arrivals. "Charlie. Adam."

"Hey," Charlie replied, putting his bag down and nodding before heading off to the line to purchase his breakfast. Dwayne followed him after giving a little wave, slouching off behind his captain.

"You not eating anything, Adam?" Connie asked as he sat down next to Julie, wrinkling her brow in concern. He grinned and pulled a couple granola bars out of his bag, tearing the wrapper off one and taking a bite.

"I don't eat much in the morning," he answered, resting his elbows on the table and hunching over slightly. Just then, the rest of the Ducks came through the doors and headed for the line, creating a significant cacophony that caused the cafeteria ladies to scowl and reprimand the boys. Suddenly, the table was full of chattering hockey players, and Allie found herself feeling smaller than usual since she was sitting next to Dwayne, one of the tallest players on the team.

"Nervous for practice?" Dwayne asked, ripping a piece of his biscuit off and popping it into his mouth. She straightened, happy to have someone to talk to, and smiled halfheartedly.

"Won't do much good to be nervous, just messes with my game," she replied, picking at the hair tie around her wrist and twirling it to keep her hands busy. He nodded in understanding, patting her on the shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"Ha, you should be nervous, Orion's practices are lethal," Russ laughed, nudging Goldberg who then nodded enthusiastically. "They're hard to get used to."

"Hey, Goldberg, right?" Allie asked, pointing at the defenseman and waiting for his affirmative. "Weren't you the goalie for the Goodwill Games? What happened?" His face clouded and a couple Ducks laughed disbelievingly.

"He made Julie one, I'm two. But hey, I'm a defenseman now, what's so bad about that?" he replied stiffly, sniffing angrily.

"Nothing, it was just a surprise to find out that the goalie I watched on TV got kicked out." She was slightly taken aback by his anger, having thought it was a legitimate enough question for one to ask without having been there when Orion made the change. Connie gave her a warning look and stood, grabbing her bag and dragging Allie up by her elbow.

"Come on, it's time for practice," she said, tugging Allie along quickly and barely leaving her time to grab her gear. "Okay, first rule of talking to the Ducks: Don't ask Goldberg about his goalie days."

"I didn't know!" Allie groaned, breaking into a jog to keep up with Connie's fast steps. They exited the cafeteria and headed for the rink, keeping the impossible pace despite the bags that slapped against their thighs.

"Yeah, I know you didn't, but Goldberg doesn't. He probably thought you were making fun of him," Connie huffed, shouldering the door to the arena open and maneuvering her bag through the frame. Allie followed her, mentally slapping her own forehead for giving someone a real reason to dislike her, and said a silent prayer asking that practice go all right.

A Zamboni was making its way around the rink, smoothing the ice and leaving it with a glossy sheen that reflected the lights on the ceiling. The girls headed across the facility to the locker rooms so they could change, preferably before the boys got there so they didn't have to go into the showers. Allie went over to her designated area and set her bag down on the bench, unzipping it and taking out a thick pair of socks. She slid her feet out of her sandals and tossed them in the main compartment of the duffle, replacing them with her socks and then going about putting on her other gear.

She had just finished adjusting her shoulder pads when the team walked in, talking in low voices and going straight to putting their gear on. Allie glanced at Goldberg, wondering exactly how angry he was with her, and then slid on her practice jersey before sitting down to lace up her skates. She caught snatches of conversation, mostly about the upcoming season, but then heard her name. Snapping her head up, she darted her eyes around and looked for a sign of who might have spoken about her, but found only the normal mumblings of hockey players that involve skates, pads, and legal versus illegal checks.

Once she was satisfied with the tightness of her laces and the snugness of the boots, she stood and grabbed her helmet and stick, walking out of the locker room and back into the rink area. The glassy ice made her smile, and she stepped onto it with renewed confidence in her abilities, feeling the usual rush she got when she had a hockey stick in her hand and skates on her feet.

Allie skated to the center of the rink, skidding to a stop and working her feet back and forth lightly to keep herself upright. Deep breaths were the only thing that combated the furious pounding of her heart and the wringing of her stomach, though she almost felt like throwing up. Her nerves were giving her too much energy, making her want to skate a thousand laps and shoot a thousand goals, and then bounce off all the walls in the school. She was truly dreading, yet strangely excited about, this practice. She wanted it to go perfectly.


	5. Locker Room Chatter

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks, or Orion for that matter. They belong to Disney.

Author's note: Okay, so technically this is Thursday when I'm posting this, but just barely. It took me a bit to get all my ideas together, so I hope you like it! Let me know what you think, and, as always, thanks to my amazing reviewers! You guys keep me going, and I love y'all! (Can you tell I've lived in the South for too long?) Also, I couldn't have gotten through this chapter without Midway and Edge, who gave me some really good ideas and helped me fix the scrimmage scene. Have any problems? You know what to do!

* * *

"Okay, everybody on the goal line!" Orion bellowed, walking onto the ice with his clipboard held in one hand and his whistle in the other. Allie skated backwards, glancing out of the corner of her eye to check that she wasn't in danger of hitting someone, and flipped down the face mask of her helmet. The Ducks assembled along the goal line, shuffling their feet awkwardly and tapping their sticks experimentally against the ice, flexing their fingers around the handles.

"Does he always yell?" Allie asked Connie quietly, who had skated up beside her and was now adjusting her helmet strap methodically.

"No, but he uses that trademark adult 'stern voice,'" Connie replied, rolling her eyes.

"All right, Ducks. New year, new opportunities to show what you've got. I want you to do some suicides and some laps, maybe a little footwork, and then we're going to scrimmage a bit so we can see what Faulkner can do," Coach Orion said, walking towards the penalty boxes and lifting the whistle to his lips.

A short blast sent them off, sprinting for the first blue line and then skidding to a stop before bolting for the goal line again. This trend continued, only with the red line, second blue line, and then the opposite goal line. Allie felt her calf muscles strain, bunching strangely from disuse over the summer, and then felt her entire body fall into the easy rhythm of skating hard. Her pads were still a bit off, being new and a bit different than the ones she wore on the recreation league, but she figured she'd be okay by the end of practice.

Orion had them do three more sets of suicides and then had them do ten laps. They skated in a line, Allie being the last other than Julie, whose pads inhibited her speed, because everyone else already had their set place. The sound of blades sliding across ice was the only thing that could be heard other than the occasional comment from the coach, strangely at odds with the Ducks' usual camaraderie, and Allie was disconcerted by the silence.

"Fulton, bend your knees!" Orion called as they passed him, reaching out with his stick and tapping him on the calf. The Bash Brother got lower to the ice, bending over his thighs.

"Dude, he knows I'm not a skater," Fulton grumbled to Portman, shaking his head and pushing off harder on his toes.

"Doesn't mean he's not going to try and make you one. Just listen to him, man, you can do whatever you want in the game," Portman replied, laughing gruffly and quirking one corner of his mouth. They skated onward, working their arms back and forth and following Charlie and Banks, the only two players in front of them.

"Moreau, Germaine, stop yapping and keep up!" the coach barked, clapping once to get their attention. Guy scowled and pushed harder, upset at getting called out, and they finished their laps in relative quiet.

"Okay, now I want to work on some footwork. I want you to skate from here--" He pointed at a spot halfway between the center line and the blue line. "--to here, and then over there." He pointed at a few more spots, illustrating the moves necessary for completing the course. "Go down the line; Conway then Banks, and so on."

Charlie set off and hit the first mark, spinning quickly to hit the second and then nearly losing his balance trying to land the third. He sighed in frustration, skating to the fourth mark and then skidding to a stop in front of the goal.

"You need to lean into that curve, Conway, don't do it so recklessly. Precision, that's the ticket," Orion said, nodding to the back of the line and then motioning Banks forward. Adam skated through the maneuvers well, keeping his balance easily and stopping smoothly by the goal crease. "Banks, keep your head up when you're going toward the goal, never look down."

"Sure, Coach," Banks agreed amiably, pushing off his right foot and skating leisurely to the back of the line, behind Charlie. Fulton skated off next, nearly landing on his butt during the spin. He slammed his fist against the ground and stood, finishing the course at breakneck speed. Orion didn't even say anything, just nodded to him and motioned Portman forward.

The trend continued with each new attempt, something going wrong within the first three marks, until it was Allie's turn. She was a skater at heart, having done it since she was four and then taking lessons since she was eight, and she was confident in her ability to finish the small course without mistakes. She worked her blades back and forth for a few seconds before taking off, getting just the right traction, and then sped through the course with fluidity.

"Nice work, Faulkner!" Orion called approvingly as she spun to a stop by the goal, tipping back her visor and grinning happily. She nodded and skated back to the line, feeling the angry glares of her skeptics on her back.

"What was that?" Connie asked, her tone tinged with disbelief that was only slightly offensive.

"I skate well. Hockey? I'm nothing special. But skating? Now that's my life," Allie said, winking jokily and sliding around in a small circle by shifting her weight. Humming a song that had been stuck in her head for a few days, she waited for Orion to give them further instructions.

"All right, you Ducks ready for a scrimmage?" he asked, surveying them indifferently, as if he weren't really expecting an answer. "Since we've just gotten back from summer break, I don't want anyone getting injured. We haven't had a game yet, and I'd prefer that none of you were hurt when we face Blake for the season opener. Only rule of this game: No checking. You can steal all you want, but I don't want anyone knocked down. We aren't taking chances."

"But Coach!" Goldberg began, gesticulating wildly as if he were truly angry. "Checking's the best part of hockey!"

"You'll just have to live without that, won't you?" Orion snapped, narrowing his eyes at the former goalie. "Right, well, I want Banks, Germaine, Wu, Robertson, Mendoza, Faulkner, and Tyler on one team, and then Goldberg, Averman, Conway, Portman, Fulton, and Moreau on the other. Gaffney, you'll be in goal and we'll play on half the rink."

The players skated to their respective groups, some grumbling about wanting to be on the other side, and gathered to discuss strategy. Allie's team was flippant, leisurely going about deciding who would take the face-off and completely disregarding Allie's presence except to ask her what position she usually played. She replied that she'd played many positions over the years, and would do whichever one they wanted her to because it didn't really matter to her.

"Let's play!" The teams assembled, heading to their assigned spots and checking out who was playing their position on the other side, and Banks met with Charlie in the center for the face-off. Orion strode over and dropped the puck, backing away quickly and watching Banks pass to Guy who, in turn, sailed the puck over to Luis. Julie squared up in the goal, holding her glove ready and tapping the end of her stick on the goalpost in anticipation.

"Shoot, Luis!" Banks called, weaving around a few defensemen and watching as his teammate shot, only to have the puck stopped expertly by Julie.

"Nice save, Cat!" Connie exclaimed, skating around the goal and holding her hand up for a high-five. Portman muscled his way through the other players, slapping the puck away from the goal and sending it to Fulton, who wound up for his signature slap shot. Allie took this opportunity to slide feet-first into his target zone, knocking the puck away and then getting up quickly before he hit her with his powerful swing. Dwayne scooped it up off the ice, bouncing it up and down on his stick while he skated towards Julie.

"Cowboy, over here!" Russ yelled, hitting the ice with his stick to call for the puck. Dwayne passed it to him and then spun away to go behind the goal in case something went wrong. Portman and Fulton swarmed Russ, forcing him to pass it to the first available person: Allie. She cradled the puck, bringing it to her far right before starting to skate with it, keeping it in her comfort zone. Charlie came up alongside her, nudging her with his shoulder and reaching in with his stick in an attempt to steal, finally ramming her hard enough that she almost fell over.

"Nice try," he murmured as he passed the puck over to Averman, staring at her challengingly as she shook off the soreness in her arm. She grimaced and skated backwards, leaving the tussle behind and observing the situation shrewdly. Orion was doing the same thing, watching how the others avoided Allie and treated her with a small amount of contempt.

Julie was doing a superb job of keeping the goal safe, only missing a shot from Banks and another one from Fulton, who was able to get his slap shot off. Every time Allie got the puck, a defender from the other team did everything _but_ slam her to the ground, knocking her far off her planned course and using her size against her. Finally, frustrated, she called for the puck in front of the goal, silently begging Banks to pass it to her.

"Allie!" he yelled, making eye contact and sliding the puck to her from between Portman's legs. She received it, shooting immediately and catching it just right on the left goalpost so it banged in behind Julie's leg. As she was about to throw her arms up in celebration, a jarring force blasted through her right side and reverberated through her whole body. Her teeth ground together and she crumpled, dropping her stick and bringing her left arm up to break her fall.

Realizing that her eyes were squeezed shut, she opened them and saw Goldberg standing over her with his arms crossed and a rather smug expression painted on his face. She growled, wincing internally at the pain in her hip, and pushed herself up with one arm, forcing her legs to support her.

"Who do you think you are, huh? Freaking Jack O'Callahan?" she screamed, tossing her gloves down beside her stick and skating up next to him, glaring before skating off toward the side.

"What did I tell you about checking?" Orion asked, quiet but cold in the dangerous way he had. No one said anything, just blinked in astonishment or whispered to their neighbor. "Nobody knows? Well, I guess we'll just have to do laps until someone can tell me." The Ducks groaned, dropping their sticks and starting to form a line. Allie began to skate over to them, but Orion stopped her. "No, Faulkner, I want you to watch."

"What? Why?" she asked, undoing her helmet straps and taking it off. Her shallow breaths pumped out steam and she joined Orion at center ice, figuring out that he wasn't going to answer her. She watched the team skate fifteen laps, finally turning to her coach and asking if they could stop--they all looked exhausted. He eyed her skeptically, as if analyzing her for a moment, before blowing his whistle and striding off toward his office.

Letting out a deep breath, Allie went over to retrieve her stick and gloves before going to the locker room, avoiding any contact with the rest of the Ducks. She knew they'd be mad, especially Goldberg, and she didn't want to face their wrath before getting a nice, hot shower.

When she'd removed all her gear and stowed it properly in her area, she grabbed her duffle from under the bench and walked into the girls' shower area, picking up a fluffy white towel and draping it over her arm on the way to one of the stalls. Putting her bag down beside the wall, she hung the towel on the hook attached to the frame and peeled off her sweaty clothes, getting in the shower and turning the water on full blast.

Just as she was relaxing and beginning to enjoy the hot water, someone outside the shower began whispering suspiciously. Moving the curtain back just enough so she could see, she peered out to find Russ and Goldberg hovering around her bag, arguing about who would take it and where to put it. When they'd left, she smirked and began formulating a plan for revenge.

* * *

"Where's my bag?!" The Ducks looked up to see Allie rush out of the showers, clad only in a towel and looking frantic. She moved things around in her locker, starting to hyperventilate slightly, before sinking down onto the bench with wide eyes. Her skin was unusually pale, all the color seeming to have been sucked from her cheeks, and she was shaking like a leaf.

"What's wrong, Transfer?" Charlie asked casually, masking his minor concern with an attempt at nonchalance. She looked up at him wild-eyed, clutching at her towel and breathing hard.

"My bag's gone, I need…my inhaler," she huffed, coughing to illustrate her point and thumping her sternum with a fist. Instantly, the entire team stiffened and the joke wasn't funny anymore. Charlie and Adam looked at each other for a moment before taking off running out to the rink, fighting each other to get through the door. Connie rushed over and sat next to her, asking if there was anything she could do and glaring venomously at Russ and Goldberg.

"Here!" Adam cried, running back in with Allie's duffle strapped over his shoulder. He thrust it at her anxiously, looking extremely worried. She accepted it calmly, standing and looping the smaller set of straps over her arm.

"Thanks," she replied easily, all traces of breathiness gone from her voice and the color seeping back into her cheeks. She grinned around at the room at large, a certain glint of malice in her dark eyes, before winking and striding back into the showers without another word.

"Holy shit," Charlie yelped disbelievingly, leaning against the doorframe and breathing hard. The Ducks nodded in agreement, too dumbfounded to speak, and slowly went back to whatever they were doing before Allie had tricked them.

* * *

Allie got dressed in her jeans and Carolina Hurricanes t-shirt, feeling triumphant and satisfied with the reaction her counter-prank had gotten, though she was regretting not telling Connie and Dwayne first so they didn't flip out. She finished getting ready and headed for class, smirking mischievously and hoping she'd proved herself to the team as a worthy opponent.


	6. Personal Sacajawea

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks, but how cool would that be?! Allie and Jason are all from my evil little brain, however.

Author's note: Look at me, posting in a day! I'm proud of this, it's a first! Anyway, my reviewers are totally amazing! I can't even begin to articulate how much it means to me that you guys like this, makes my heart go all warm and fuzzy when I notice a new review! Let me know what you think, and if you have any issues with the activities of Allie and the gang in this chapter. I love any kind of feedback, good or bad, because it lets me know what I'm doing wrong and/or right. (Ha, I sounded a bit like a Christmas song there! No? Okay then, on to the story!)

* * *

Allie dug her schedule out of her book bag as she walked down the hall, juggling her duffle, purse, and backpack all at once because she still hadn't found her locker. Glancing down at the crumpled piece of paper in her hand, she swerved around a couple people and narrowly avoided being hit with a door swung open by a teacher. Huffing a sigh of defeat, she looked around desperately for locker 458 and fumbled with the straps of her duffle.

"Lost?" someone asked, peering over her shoulder at her timetable and then stepping around so they were standing in front of her. "Hey, I'm Jason Morrow," the boy said, sticking out his hand in greeting before catching sight of her occupied arms and grinning abashedly.

"Allie Faulkner. Yeah, I'm pretty much Louis and Clark without a Sacajawea right now," she laughed, shifting some of her things around to keep them from falling. "Do you know where this locker is?" she asked him, holding out the paper and putting her thumb next to the number.

"Ah, seems you've been assigned to Duck Row," he observed, pointing to the next group of lockers to the left where pretty much every Duck was standing. "You on the hockey team or something? They tried to keep them all together."

"Yep, hockey team, that's me," she grumbled, glancing darkly at the row of lockers and then turning back to her guide. "Okay, so you can find lockers for me, but are you this handy with classrooms?" she asked, smiling and extending the paper again.

"Sheesh, French Three?" he exclaimed, making a disgusted face when he saw her fourth period class listing. She scowled playfully, snatching the form back and folding it into a neat little square.

"Something wrong with it?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow comically. He shrugged and walked beside her as she went over to the lockers, peering around some of her teammates in an attempt to locate her locker. "Great," she muttered, dropping her bag by Portman's feet, who was currently looking at her warily.

"How's your asthma, Transfer?" Russ asked shrewdly, slamming his locker and folding his arms as he leaned against the closed door.

"Cleared up pretty quick, huh? Maybe my bag will stay where I put it from now on," she returned coolly, dropping down to her knees and reaching around Portman's monster of a calf to open her lock with the combination written on her palm. Once she'd swung the door open as far as the tight space allowed, she shoved her duffle on the top shelf and fought to press it in far enough, then unloaded her books and ordered them by class.

"OCD?" Jason chuckled, resting his back against the wall and looking down at her in amusement. She merely rolled her eyes, opening her large purse and filling it with the books for her first three periods, before closing the door and spinning the lock. Knowing the Ducks were observing her, she turned her back on them and grinned up at her guide.

"Okay, so where's English Two with Mrs. Norman?" Allie asked brightly, shouldering her bag.

"Follow me," he answered, pushing himself off the wall with a foot and striding off in the opposite direction, taking her straight to the door where the teacher had almost knocked her sprawling. Giggling at the irony, she followed him into the classroom and noticed a seating chart drawn on the board. They both went over to it, and she spotted his name as well as hers.

"You're in this class too?" Surprised, her eyes widened and then swiveled to face him.

"Yup, sure seems that way." He nodded, pursing his lips to keep from laughing at her, though the mirth made his green eyes dance merrily under the fringe of brown hair that swept across them. She snorted quietly and turned back to the board, searching for her seat and looking to see if she knew anyone sitting around her.

"Oh, cool, I'm sitting in the back corner," she said, thinking out loud, and then saw that Jason was diagonally in front of her, to the left. Wandering back toward her seat, she looked around the room and took in the décor--what little there was.

The usual posters hung on the wall, with objectives and proper grammar listed in what manufacturers like to think is a fun way, and two chalkboards were on adjacent planes. The teacher obviously didn't have much creativity, because her desk was cluttered with papers and had only one personal item: a picture of her family.

A bell rang throughout the school, signaling that it was time for the students to begin moving toward their classrooms, and the teacher bustled in carrying binders and a stack of freshly copied informational pamphlets.

"Pamphlets?" Allie mouthed disbelievingly, looking at Jason imploringly.

"Welcome to Eden Hall," he laughed, sitting on his desk and propping his feet up on the back of his chair. She set her bag down beside her own chair, sitting down in it and crossing her legs while facing him. "So what brings you here, anyway?"

"Like I said before: Hockey team, that's me," she replied, spreading her hands in a helpless gesture and shrugging. "My parents have been dead-set on me coming here since I was little, because they met here and all, but I didn't want to. After a talk with Dean Buckley over the summer, they brought it up again and, well, here I am!"

"Sounds like a drag," he said sympathetically, wrinkling his nose. "What school did you go to before coming here?"

"Edina Public, not all that far away." He nodded and they continued to talk until another bell rang, and a tidal wave of students poured through the door and flooded the area around the front chalkboard. Allie spotted Connie, Julie, Banks, Portman, and Luis amid the throng, jostling for position or, in Portman's case, knocking people out of the way and threatening a few smaller boys.

Connie turned and saw Allie watching them, raising a hand to wave before working her way out of the crowd and moving towards her.

"Hey!" she said happily, taking off her backpack and sitting down in the desk behind Jason.

"Small world, huh?" Allie asked with a grin, nodding in the direction of the other Ducks.

"Oh no, not that small, just an attempt to keep the Scholarship Kids together," Connie replied, rolling her eyes exasperatedly. She yelped as Luis smacked her lightly on the back of the head, sitting beside her and smirking when she glared over at him. "Thanks," she growled sarcastically.

"No problem," he replied with a chuckle, his eyes flickering over to Portman as he sat in front of Allie. "Good luck with that," he told her, winking and jerking his head at Portman.

"Great, now I can't see," Allie groaned, leaning right then left when she discovered it was impossible for her to see the entire board.

"Hey, don't worry, sweetie! I sleep in this class anyway, English isn't my thing," Portman told her genially, grinning at her and looking her up and down. Raising an eyebrow, she picked one of her books up off the floor and whacked him across the arm with it, catching him on the bicep and doing minimal damage.

"Portman, cut it out," Banks sighed, causing everyone to look over and notice that he had parked himself in the seat in front of the Bash Brother. Their stares unnerved him, making him shift uncomfortably and turn his focus to the teacher, who was walking to the front of the class.

"Welcome back for another year at Eden Hall, students!" she called briskly, holding two stacks of pamphlets in her hands and extending them to the people in the front desks closest to her. "I'm Mrs. Norman, as you should well know, and this is English Two. We will be exploring our complex language thoroughly, delving into the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and many more…."

"I'm bored," Portman grumbled, propping his chin on his hand and letting his eyes drift shut, leaving his and Allie's pamphlets untouched on the corner of his desk. Huffing in frustration, Allie poked him in the shoulder twice in an attempt to get his attention.

"Portman!" she hissed, her eyes on the teacher to make sure she wasn't watching. "Hey, Portman! Come on, give me my pamphlet, you oaf!" Seeing her struggle out of the corner of his eye, Jason chuckled and leaned over, taking the folded white paper off Portman's desk and handing it to her. "Thanks," she mouthed, quirking one corner of her mouth in an embarrassed smile.

"No problem," he mouthed back, turning around and facing the front again while the teacher droned on endlessly about their reading list, expectations, and curriculum requirements. Allie fought hard to pay attention, but found her mind drifting elsewhere often and had to snap herself back into reality.

* * *

"Oh. My. God, I think I lost a few brain cells in that class," Connie complained as they emerged from their first painful period of Sophomore English, rubbing at her eyes to clear them. Allie nodded in agreement, her eyes widened in annoyance, and raked her fingers through her hair.

"What's your next class?" she asked Connie and Jason, the only two classmates that were still standing near her.

"Chemistry," Jason said, just as Connie replied with, "Civics."

"And I'm off to…Civics as well," Allie exclaimed after a glance at her schedule, looking up and grinning. "Cool, I know someone already!"

"I guess I'll see you around, then?" Jason asked, walking backwards slowly towards his next class. She nodded quickly, her heart thudding a little harder than usual, and waved before following Connie around the corner and turning a furious shade of red.

"Ooh, what do I see?" Connie asked in a singsong voice, batting her eyes and pursing her lips in mocking. Allie swatted at her, the red stain spreading to the tops of her ears, and clutched at her bag.

"Shut up, you see nothing," she rebutted, prepared to deny ever, _ever_, turning this brilliant shade in the front of anyone--possibly even the Supreme Court.


	7. Gotta Eat Sometime

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks, or the Hawks. Allie and Jason happen to be mine, though.

Author's note: I'm loving the new reviewer thing! Here's the new chapter, took a bit longer then the last few. Let me know what you think, what your issues are. Thanks for your support, and as always, reviews (anonymous or signed) are completely appreciated and welcome!

* * *

By the time she reached lunch, Allie was mentally and physically exhausted. When she walked into the cafeteria, she located the Ducks' table and headed over without purchasing any food, too tired to bother with the tray and waiting in line. Connie, Luis, Julie, Portman, Fulton, and Charlie were the first ones seated, eating their food and conversing loudly as if they were the only ones in the room.

"Hey, Connie," Allie sighed, sinking down into the chair beside her and letting her head fall onto the table with a thud.

"Tired?" Connie asked, masking a giggle with a light cough and patting her head sympathetically. "Don't worry, Orion doesn't usually give us practice before class. It does tend to make you want to curl up in your room and never come out."

"That sounds really nice, where do I sign up?" Allie muttered, her voice muffled by her arms. The Ducks laughed and went back to their discussion, debating the merits of black and white stick tape. Allie mostly tuned them out, trying hard not to fall asleep right then and there, and focused on preparing herself for the last four classes of the day.

"Sleeping on the job?" Her head shot up and she turned to see Banks standing behind her with a tray in his hands, two slices of cheese pizza and a carton of milk sitting on it. She scowled as he sat next to her, letting the tray clatter as it hit the table and opening the milk.

"Yeah, well, you'd be tired too if it was your first day," she replied, blocking out the smell of the pizza and ignoring the way her mouth watered.

"I am tired, but I also know what kind of stuff goes on around these tables, and I'm not about to go laying my head on them." He gave a short, mirthless laugh and picked up one of the plates of pizza, plunking it down in front of her and then going about eating the other one.

"What's that for?" she asked suspiciously, pushing the plate back towards him and eyeing it warily. He rolled his eyes and nudged it over again.

"Gotta eat sometime," he answered, taking a bite and closing the conversation. Allie turned to Connie, jerking her head toward the pizza as if asking if it was okay to eat.

"That's just Banksie, he's too nice for his own good," Connie said with a shrug, receiving nods of agreement from the rest of the table.

"I'm going to take that as a compliment," Banks told her, grinning. Connie stuck out her tongue playfully and returned to her lunch, leaving Allie to decide whether or not to eat the pizza without anymore commentary. Seeing that she was still at odds with the food, Banks leaned over and ripped a piece off, displaying it between his fingers. "Look, it's not contaminated," he said, popping it into his mouth and chewing, making a show of swallowing hard.

"That's not it," she mumbled, picking the slice up and ripping off a bite with her teeth. "But thanks." He looked up in surprise, his eyebrows shooting into his hair, and stopped mid-chew.

"You're welcome," he replied, nodding and then turning away to begin a conversation with Charlie and Fulton. Despite barely being able to lift her hands, she ate the slice quickly and didn't notice anything off or strange about it.

"That was a nice goal in practice this morning, Transfer," Julie said suddenly, catching Allie off guard and causing her eyes to widen. She looked at the goalie, who had her hair pulled back in a ponytail and looked completely different from practice.

"Thank you, it was just kind of a lucky shot. Banged off the post," she answered, tilting her head to one side quizzically. Julie shrugged and went back to eating her ham sandwich, leaving Allie to wonder what brought that on. The bell rang, though it seemed distant, like it was coming through a glass wall and being muffled on the way.

Sighing, Allie gathered her things and rolled her aching shoulders, silently begging her last four teachers to be merciful with their book loads. On her way out of the cafeteria, she spotted Jason talking with a group of boys she recognized from her third period Chemistry class, and debated on whether to wave or not. On one hand, he seemed really nice that morning, but on the other, boys didn't really seem to enjoy being acknowledged while with their friends.

Deciding on a simple smile that could be taken whatever way he wanted to, Allie departed for her fifth period art class with a rush of adrenaline wriggling through her veins. The hall was crowded, students milling around and bumping into each other in an attempt to get to their lockers or push their way into classrooms. Navigation was easier when the halls were empty, but she found her way to the art room with relative ease because a girl from her French Three class had told her where it was.

* * *

Adam and Charlie walked into their fifth period Spanish Two class just before the bell rang, slouching into their seats right as the teacher came in. Senorita Marquise was a slight woman with glasses and long brown hair that she kept rolled into a fierce chignon at the back of her neck, though Adam knew that she wasn't as bad as she seemed if you acted the right way.

She started the class off the same way she had last year, by handing out forms they had to sign that signified their willingness to work and follow her classroom rules, and before she knew it, her students were talking and passing notes. Rolling her eyes, she sat at her desk and allowed them to whittle their time away, planning a large wake-up call for the next day.

"Hey there, traitor," someone said to Adam, causing him to cringe and turn around. Jason Morrow sat there smugly, tapping the eraser of his pencil against the desk and looking back at him challengingly.

"Jason," Adam acknowledged, nodding his head and then going back to discussing that morning's practice with Charlie.

"How'd you survive another summer in Hawk territory?" Jason asked persistently, trying to get a rise out of him. Adam ignored the gibe, explaining the finer points of the skating course Orion had made them do to Charlie. "Your dad still making you miserable?"

"You'd think after four years, you'd have been over that whole thing," Adam snapped, not looking at the ex-Hawk and staring firmly ahead. Jason laughed darkly.

"Hard to forget when the guy who abandoned your team is on television playing for big Team USA, talked about all the time at home." Adam's hand tightened around his pen, his thumbnail digging into the rubber grip. "Big Adam Banks, the boy who can do it all."

"Shut up, man," Charlie growled, leveling his gaze at the boy and furrowing his brows. "Leave Banks alone."

"Oh yeah, you," Jason cooed mockingly, a large grin spreading across his face. "Ducks fly together and all that shit. Right, flying together sure helps when you've got an entire school still against you." A girl passed Jason a note, distracting him for a few minutes.

"What's his deal, Banksie?" Charlie asked quietly, eyeing the attacker menacingly.

"He's still hanging onto the Hawk-Duck switch back in the pee wee league," Adam replied, looking down at his Learning Contract that was still unsigned.

"Grudges are crap, man," Charlie muttered, shaking his head and rubbing the back of his neck. While Jason was occupied with the girl, they tried to get back to analyzing the practice. "So what'd you think of Transfer?"

"She's okay, but definitely not the best on the team. I don't see her making first line at all, maybe not second either," Adam answered honestly, shrugging. "Plus she's too small, she'd get smashed first time out." Charlie grimaced in agreement and doodled the outline of a rink on the side of his Contract, filling in the goal lines and zone markings.

"I dunno, man, but she's sure got her work cut out for her with the game coming up in less than two weeks. Blake isn't that tough, but we've gotta keep the defense up. I don't think I could handle another tie like that one," Charlie said, sighing in frustration.

"Hey, yeah, I forgot about that. I get to play Blake's JV team this year, their Varsity was cake!" They laughed quietly, keeping the teacher's attention away from them, and started drawing out plays and figuring out positions.

Allie emerged from art class with her sketchbook tucked under her arm, feeling happy with herself that she was able to complete her drawing in just one forty-five minute period. She wasn't particularly excited when she heard it had to be in charcoal, but she was satisfied with the finished product and that was all that mattered.

* * *

"Allie!" She turned around and saw Dwayne coming down the hallway towards her, waving a hand above his head. "You going to Algebra?"

"Yeah, are you?" she asked, grinning and waiting for him to catch up. He nodded and they walked off down the hall side by side, going down the six hundred hall. Over the course of the day, Allie had discovered that the halls were numbered in the hundreds, and each subject was in a different hallway. Although she could have used the information at the beginning of the day, she also felt proud that she had found it out on her own. As far as classes went, she had been pleasantly surprised with the caliber of the teachers and the quantity of students per class. They were smaller groups, which she liked best for a good learning environment.

"Positions get posted after tomorrow's practice," Dwayne said offhandedly, shocking her into reality. She glanced up at him and paled, her eyes widening.

"Really? We've just got two practices to prove ourselves?" she asked with a gulp, now more nervous then she ever had been.

"Yeah, last year it was just one. Sounds like he's conflicted," he answered, nodding. Her heart sank, her stomach falling somewhere around the general area of her feet.


	8. Living in the Past

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks or Eden Hall, but Allie, Emily, Rebecca, and Nate are all from me.

Author's note: Wahoo! I'm back to posting in a day! This is kind of a bit of insight into Allie's past, more of Emily and the gang will come later. Thanks to all my lovely reviewers, you guys rule! I've gotten a lot of votes for Dwayne, which is funny to me. Didn't plan it that way! We'll see how things pan out when the story progresses….

* * *

Allie slouched into her dorm room with immense effort, dropping her bag by the door before falling onto her bed. Her entire body ached, and her head was throbbing with a headache that had been building itself to a migraine all day. Rolling over onto her stomach, she dug around in her suitcase for the tiny bottle of Motrin she kept in the zippered pocket with her allergy pills. When she found it, she dropped one into her mouth desperately and dry-swallowed, eager to get the treatment in her system.

"_Now I'm heels over head/I'm hanging upside down/Thinking how you left me for dead!/California bound!"_ Her cell phone rang and buzzed, playing the song "Heels Over Head" by Boys Like Girls. She took the phone from her jeans pocket, checking the caller ID before flipping it open excitedly.

"EMILY?!" she yelled into the mouthpiece, receiving an answering squeal from her best friend. "Oh, thank God!"

"Al, how are you surviving prep school without me?" Emily laughed, giving Allie a sudden wave of homesickness.

"I don't know how I'm gonna live, Em. Gah, it's awful! We have eight periods a day, can you believe it? I have so many books in my backpack right now, I think it rivals my collection at home!" she ranted, hanging her head over the side of the bed and blowing out a loud sigh. "Plus, I think I've only made three friends. The team hates me."

"Yuck, I'm sorry," Emily sympathized, and Allie could almost hear her upper lip curling into her trademark foul-smell face, which made her laugh. "Well, tell me something good like…how cute are the yuppie offspring?"

"Depends on your idea of cute," Allie said vaguely, teasing her friend and gaining a perturbed exhale from her. "All right, all right. So there's a couple guys I've noticed, but this one guy…God."

"Spill!" Emily shrieked, and the sound of something extremely breakable falling to the floor could be heard in the background. Allie stood and went over to her door, looking down the hall both ways to make sure no one was coming and then shutting it with a definite click.

"Okay, so his name's Jason, and he helped me find my locker this morning," she began, sitting back down on the bed and falling backwards. "I was kind of wandering around aimlessly, like I'm want to do when I have no clue what I'm doing, and I have all my stuff with me: books, purse, duffle--everything! I was getting fed up, when all of a sudden this guy asks if I'm lost and offers to help me out!"

"Totally cliché! I'm loving it, continue!"

"So I say yes, and I find out that my locker is in the middle of my new team, of which only two or three people even pretend to tolerate me. I put my crap away and then ask him if he knows where my first period class is, and it turns out that he's in it!" Allie laughed, for what seemed like the first time in millennia, and found herself almost happy. "He's totally adorable, brown hair and green eyes that are ridiculously pretty. It's weird to call a guy's eyes pretty, isn't it?" she asked, suddenly self-conscious.

"Depends on the guy…he doesn't look like a girl, does he?" Emily asked, causing a snort to burst from Allie's nose unexpectedly.

"No!" she coughed, laughing and gagging at the same time.

"Well then, I'd say it's perfectly acceptable. Just let me know if he begins to seem like a transvestite, because then I might have some issues with that." Allie rolled her eyes and remembered exactly why it was she was best friends with Emily.

"Plus he's way tall, which is kind of cool, even though a midget would be way tall to me," Allie continued, making fun of her slight frame.

"Nuh-uh, you are so over five-two now," Emily rebutted.

"Oh yeah, I'm up there with Shaq now!" Allie joked, grinning and picking at a loose thread on her comforter. "I almost forgot to ask, how was your first day? Was Max there, looking finer then last year? Did he re-shave his head?"

"Hey, chill out with the Twenty Questions, Al!" Emily laughed. "Get out of here, you _brat!_" she yelled suddenly, causing Allie to jump. "Sorry, little Indiana Jones decided to drop in with one of his 'discoveries,'" she apologized.

"It's cool, I know how annoying he can be with those bugs. What got him into those, anyway?" Allie asked, wrinkling her nose.

"I dunno, but it's going to have to stop. So, school, right. Yeah, Max was there, and may I say that summer does the boy good? He's tan, again, which makes me infinitely jealous, and he's let his hair get back to its normal length. Oh! Braxton was asking where you got off to, and he's insisted that the entire team get back together to go see your first game."

"Oh, Em, don't do that…I might not even be playing," Allie admitted, her smile falling into a frown and her heart dropping again.

"What? Why? You've always rocked the hockey rink, what's the deal?" Emily asked incredulously, her voice getting higher.

"Yeah, I can do okay in recreation, but these kids can outright _play_, Em. I'm, like, second line at best around these parts," she explained, staring blankly at her ceiling.

"I don't want to hear that attitude, missy! Get your head up, work your ass off, and make that line!" Emily said encouragingly, doing a perfect imitation of Allie's mother. Allie laughed halfheartedly, her mind drifting back to the days when she could out-skate some of the boys on the rink, and pictured the look on the new team's faces if she were able to do that with them.

"Thanks, ma, but what's with the cursing? Did Nate try to give you a lesson on seeming tough again? Because if he did, I'm going to have to give that boy a talk when you guys come up here," Allie threatened, remembering the time Nate--a starting defensive leftwing--had decided that the girls on the team needed some toughening up.

* * *

He had taken Allie, Emily, and Rebecca to the local diner and sat them down in a booth, staring at them as if he were preparing to make a business deal with them.

"Now, girls, what do you think about letting me and a few of the other defensive guys teach you how to be tough?" he'd asked, the epitome of seriousness. Allie had looked at Emily and Rebecca in turn, her mouth twitching with the strain of not grinning goofily at him.

"Really, Nate? You'd do that for us?" she'd replied in a hopeful tone, widening her eyes innocently and blinking a few times. He'd smiled widely and nodded, seeming to buy her BS.

"Sure, why not? We don't want you getting crushed out there," he'd said self-importantly, puffing out his chest.

"That sounds so--I'm sorry, I can't do it!" Allie had exploded, laughing so hard tears streamed down her cheeks, and collapsed against the back of the booth. Nate had looked horrified for a few seconds before joining them in their laughter, though a bit less loudly.

* * *

"Yeah, that was a fun experience," Emily giggled, obviously replaying the memory in her head as well. They laughed for a few minutes and chatted meaninglessly about Edina Public's team, comparing stats and players.

"Hey, Em?" Allie asked suddenly.

"Yeah, Al?" Emily answered, perplexed.

"I'm glad you're still into hockey, and I'm happy you still wanna talk to me. I feel like _such_ a sellout!" Allie sighed, rubbing at her temples to ease the persistent headache.

"You're not a sellout, and of course I want to talk to you! You're delirious from lack of sleep and overexposure to polo shirts and boat shoes, go to bed. I'll call you around the same time tomorrow, okay?" Emily asked.

"Actually, let me call you, because we have practice after classes and I don't know what time it ends," Allie replied, feeling her eyelids drooping dangerously. "Okay, I'm going to go eat some dinner and then come back to sign all this first day crap the teachers gave out. Talk to you later."

"Catch ya on the flipside, home-dog," Emily joked, closing her phone and cutting off the connection. Allie closed hers as well, sitting up and stretching her arms above her head. Her muscles were stiff and sore, making her wince as her wrists popped and released all tension.

On her way to the cafeteria, Allie pulled her wallet out of her purse and unzipped it so she could count up her money. She was attempting to keep tabs on her usual lunch purchases so that she could hit her parents up for that much each month, and therefore keep her own pocket full. She had about thirty dollars left, and she'd only spent two dollars the day before on her dinner and then a dollar-fifty that morning on her eggs and milk.

She went through the line as fast as possible, scooping some mashed potatoes up and plopping them onto her plate at record speed, and then walked over to the Duck table. Though she knew she shouldn't get used to it, it was becoming customary to go over there without even thinking about it.

"Hi, Allie! You survived!" Connie observed brightly, grinning up at her and pulling out the seat beside her for Allie to sit in.

"Ha, yeah, I suppose I did," Allie replied, sinking into the chair and feeling her legs lock in protest. Squeezing her eyes shut for a few seconds, she forced herself to sit down all the way and then massaged her quads briefly. "But I have a feeling that I'm meant to be dead, and this whole surviving thing is just temporary until God can get someone on my case."

"Sore?" Connie asked sympathetically, quirking one corner of her mouth. Allie nodded and tucked in to her potatoes, getting a glob of them on her fork and using her teeth to scrape them off. Grateful for the food, and happy to have the day over with, Allie relaxed a bit more then usual and actually spoke to someone before they spoke to her.

"Hey, Luis?" The dark-haired boy looked over at her expectantly. "Did the English teacher tell us to do anything for homework? I know we didn't get anything to sign, but I couldn't remember if she'd said something else or not."

"Uh, no, I don't think so," he replied, smiling at her hesitantly. She smiled back in the same manner, satisfied with herself that she was able to speak to one of her teammates without feeling completely inferior.

"Thanks." She finished her dinner and said goodbye to the table at large, clearing her tray and passing Banks and Charlie on her way out. She nodded to them shyly, lifting the corners of her mouth slightly, and slipped out of the cafeteria before anything could be said.

"Hey, Allie!" Jason called from behind her, causing her to whirl around with her heart thumping considerably harder then it was a minute ago.

"Hi, Jason!" she said happily, grinning and staring up at him. "How was the rest of your day?"

"Oh, you know," he said airily, waving a hand around. "Boring. Yours?"

"Same, it was the usual first day routine."

"Yeah, I know the shtick. Okay…so I was just wondering how your day was. Gotta help Clark," he laughed, referring to her earlier comparison.

"Thanks," she giggled, fingering the zipper of her purse. "Right, well, I'm going to go sign all those contract thingies and then hit the hay. See you in English?" She cursed herself silently, knowing she sounded too hopeful, and waited for his response.

"Yup, I kind of have to go now that I've shown up the whole first day. They'll be expecting me," he joked. She nodded and backed away with a little wave, turning in the direction of the dorms and feeling her stomach cease its twisting. Letting out a relieved sigh, she made a mental note to tell Emily exactly what had just happened.

As she prepared to go to bed, she realized that the proper thing to do would be to call her parents and let them know how she was doing, but she didn't quite feel ready to talk to them just yet. Her second night at Eden Hall, and she felt no less angry with them then she had the first day they had told her they were pulling her out of Edina Public.

All thoughts flew from her head as she settled under the sheets, sinking into her soft pillow and falling asleep instantly.


	9. Left Side, Strong Side

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks or anything from the movies, Allie is the only thing I can claim here.

Author's Note: Ninth chapter! Okay, so another post, another practice. Let me know what you think--the usual, likes/dislikes--and I'll appreciate you forever! Also, let me know if you would hate me too awfully bad if I skipped to the game in the next chapter, because I really don't like classes in real life and writing them is giving me Spring Fever in the middle of summer! Bad sign! So yup, I'd appreciate being able to get into the meat of the story, but if you guys want me to drag it out a bit more I haven't got too much of a problem with it. Thanks again to my reviewers! Here ya go, guys, chapter nine!

* * *

Connie hovered by the row of lockers belonging to the Ducks, clutching her books to her chest and tapping her fingernails against her English binder. She checked the clock above a nearby classroom door, sighing tiredly and rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet.

"Russ, do you know where Guy is?" she asked exasperatedly, rolling her eyes at the absence of her boyfriend.

"Nah, he's probably in his first period by now. He say he'd meet you?" the boy returned, standing up and brushing his knees off from where he'd knelt on the floor. She nodded and shrugged, heading for her English class and running into Julie on the way.

"Morning, Jules!" she greeted brightly, smiling at the blond and falling into step with her.

"Hey, Cons," Julie replied, rubbing at her eyes to get the last remnants of sleep out of them. "I see Guy forgot to meet you."

"Nothing new, the boy needs his To Do List tattooed on his forehead if he's going to remember it," Connie laughed, her face forming a "what can you do?" expression. "I really can't believe we're already back in classes, it seems like just yesterday we were going on summer break!"

"Yeah, summer never lasts as long as I'd like," Julie said, hocking her backpack up further onto her shoulder to stop it from slipping. "It pretty much starts, gets good for a week or two, and then goes into the downward spiral leading up to school."

"Ugh, I know," Connie sighed, turning into the English room and locating her seat in the back. "Hi Allie, how was your second night?"

"Almost as good as the first one," Allie answered, grinning sluggishly and resting her chin on a fist. "How was _your_ second night?"

"Same as any other night in this place." She sank into her chair and set her books down on the desk. "Ready for another practice?"

"I might be, but I'm not so sure about my legs. They're killing me!" Allie groaned, stretching them out in front of her and exhaling slowly. "How can you not be dying right now?"

"I kept up his workout system over the summer, trained myself to be used to this. It's not so bad once you get over the initial slap in the face," Connie replied, laughing quietly and waving to Luis, Portman, and Adam as they walked in.

"Portman?" Allie asked as he sat down, raising her eyebrows sardonically in preparation for her next remark. He turned toward her expectantly with an easy smile on his face. "Do you think you could ditch the snoring today? I have a migraine and I'd enjoy _not_ having the teacher yelling in my general area." Luis and Adam burst out laughing, trying to hide it with fits of coughing and covering their mouths while turning away from the Bash Brother.

"Hey, I'm not in control of my nose, sweetie. This baby has a mind of its own," he said, tapping the side of his nose good-naturedly and winking. "Banks, shut up!" he growled, cuffing the boy's head to make him stop chuckling quietly. "It wasn't that funny."

"No, but you deciding that your nose has a mind of its own is," Adam replied, grinning. "I'm liking the agreeable Portman, maybe the whole team should dress up like girls so you won't slam us at practice. We can bat our eyelashes and talk about lipstick."

"I do not bat my eyelashes!" Allie yelped defensively, her brow furrowing at the tall blond boy.

"Ha, yeah, if you did we'd never get Portman onto the ice," Luis laughed. "He goes after anything that would look good in a skirt."

"Hey, no I…okay, so maybe I do." The burly Bash shrugged noncommittally, indifference to this fact plain on his face. "But, Speedster, I'm not the only one. Does the name 'Mindy' ring a bell?"

"Oh, the cheerleader he crawled under the table for?" Julie asked, smirking at the now uncomfortable Luis.

"Yup, that's her," Connie confirmed, smiling wickedly and mouthing the word "Payback." He looked confused for a minute before it dawned on him, and then a slow grin spread across his face.

"Good times," he muttered as the teacher walked in, pushing her glasses up on her nose and squinting through the bifocal lenses.

"Good morning, class. I trust you've all signed your agreements, so if I can just get you to pass them to the front of your row we can get started. We will begin our grammar unit today with some workbook time and then a bit of group work to check our progress, and then I have an aptitude test that the state requires me to give before the week is out." She grimaced. "Right, let's begin with page ten."

* * *

"I officially hate going to classes," Allie announced to Connie when they were changing in the locker room, pulling one of her brother's old t-shirts over her head and tugging her hair out of the collar. "There are only two that matter to me at all: Art and Chemistry. And Chemistry is only because there's always the possibility of Averman blowing up the school so I'd never have to come again."

"Feel strongly there, Transfer?" Julie asked, quirking one corner of her mouth and finishing strapping on her leg pads.

"Bit," she returned dryly, laughing once. Julie smiled fully this time, rolling her eyes and putting her chest protector on while the group fell into an easy silence. Allie finished getting ready, pulling down the sleeves of her jersey to the correct place, and then headed out to the rink, walking quickly through the boys' area and looking at the floor even though she knew that by this time everyone would be dressed.

Coach Orion was standing at the entrance to his office, a cell phone pressed to his ear and his usual stern expression planted on his face. Allie continued to glance at him as she skated onto the ice, wondering what was going on inside his head concerning their positions and line placement. She was just as nervous for this practice as she was the first, because she knew it was her last chance to prove herself before her inadequacy was posted for the entire team to see, and her blood pulsed furiously throughout her body. Her legs got the largest rush of adrenaline, and she tried to work it out by skating a few laps before the other players came out.

"Getting ahead of the game, Faulkner?" Orion called after hanging up his phone, looking through one of the glass panels at the lone skater. She skidded to a stop and looked over at him, blowing a stray bit of hair from her eyes.

"Just skating around, coach," she replied, fingering the loose end of the tape around the handle of her stick. He nodded and walked around to the entrance to the nearest penalty box, climbing in and then opening the door that went onto the rink.

"Hey, Allie," Dwayne said from behind her, skating around to her left and tapping her shin with the flat of his stick. She grinned at him and shifted from foot to foot, still full of nervous energy.

"How were your classes?" she asked, following him on his slow progression around the rink.

"Confusing," he muttered, shaking his head fast enough that his visor fell down over his face. She laughed as he propped it back up again, smiling sheepishly. "I really don't like Algebra. Why can't we just have numbers, what do letters have to do with anything?"

"They're variables," she explained with an understanding chuckle.

"Well yeah, but they just make it complicated. Let English class keep the words and junk, and leave math with numbers." He sighed and stopped in front of the goal on the Home side, picking at the tape on the end of his stick until it came loose and he was able to rewrap it.

"Okay, Ducks, today we decide the lineup!" Orion announced, skating over to them and coming to a smooth stop. "I'm going to test out different offensive lineups, so I'm going to need Goldberg, Portman, and Fulton to play defense and have Julie the Cat in goal."

"What kind of drill are we doing, coach?" Charlie asked as the defensemen and the goalie skated off to the other side of the rink, peering around Orion.

"Three-on-three, so we can figure out who works best together," he replied staunchly, checking his clipboard and consulting the lists he'd made. "Right, I want Conway, Banks, and Germaine up first. It's just a scrimmage, but work as best you can. We don't want any faulty lineups when we hit this ice versus Blake next week."

"Of course they're going to make up the first line," Connie sighed, watching her boyfriend skate off behind their captain and his right-hand man.

"Do they always end up on the same line?" Allie asked, her eyes following them as Orion dropped the puck and allowed them to create their own plays.

"Almost always," she answered, shaking her head as Banks flipped the puck up into the air over Portman's stick in a pass to Charlie who, in turn, knocked it straight into the net past Julie's head, stick side. The three boys celebrated, and the defensemen looked angry.

"Nice goal, Conway! Let's try that one more time, then we'll get our next group. Moreau, Tyler, and Mendoza, get ready!" They put their helmets on and stuck their hands in their gloves, ready to take over when the dream team was finished showing off.

After they went, only scoring once, Orion called for Allie, Kenny, and Dwayne to step up. Taking a deep breath and exchanging nods with Dwayne, Allie skated forward and allowed Kenny to take the puck first. He passed it to Dwayne through Portman's legs, then ducked around Goldberg's attempt at a check before skating close to the goal for the give and go. The Texan shot him the puck, but his shot was deflected by an excellent stick save. Allie collected it from where it skidded along the boards, spinning around an oncoming Fulton and then sliding it over to Dwayne. He got it up onto his stick and bounced it around, keeping the defense guessing as to what he planned to do with it.

"Hey, Cowboy! Over here!" Kenny yelled, smacking his stick against the ice once in a call for the puck. He received it and shot it past Goldberg, barely slipping it into the top corner of the goal past Julie's glove. They cheered, slapping high-fives and grinning goofily before turning and skating over to Orion for his critique.

"Not bad, good sense of teamwork. That's all," he said in dismissal, waving them back to the other side of the rink and motioning the next group forward.

"Did he just say 'that's all?'" Kenny asked in dismay, looking worried.

"I think he meant it like, okay, you can go now," Allie replied, smiling comfortingly. "Don't worry, that was an amazing goal. It just slipped in, perfect aim!"

"Thanks." He grinned at her, leaving her with the hope that she'd gained another friend.

Practice continued with more trial lineups, some skating drills, and then five cool down laps. The Ducks waited anxiously in the locker room for the roster to be posted, not bothering to change until they'd learned their fate.

"Don't count on this too much, it's subject to change if I feel like it," Orion said, bursting through the door without knocking first or anything, carrying a list in his clenched fist and tucking his clipboard under his arm. "I'll see you at practice tomorrow, get some sleep."

Allie's heart thundered in her chest as she got in the back of the line that had formed to read the roster, her teeth working her bottom lip between them furiously, and she gripped her stick harder then she'd meant to. Finally, Luis stepped aside and she had a clear view of her name in the bottom bracket.

Third line.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and convinced herself that she should have expected it, heading off to the showers without checking the other Ducks' positions. Leaving her gear in her locker area, she took her duffle back off the bench and gave Russ and Goldberg a meaningful look before going into the shower area. She needed a nice, warm shower to clear her head, and then she planned on going to the library to do some homework before calling Emily and going to bed.

* * *

When she emerged from the steamy shower, Allie was happy to find that everything was where she left it and none of it had been tampered with in any way. She got dressed quickly and towel-dried her hair before wrapping it into a loose bun on the back of her head. On her way out of the locker room, she waved to a couple people and said a quiet goodbye to Connie, Dwayne, and Kenny, who was smiling at her kindly.

She dropped her duffle off in her room and grabbed her backpack, going to the library and finding a table by the window so she could do her homework in relative peace and quiet. Taking her iPod out, she turned the sound down to about twenty-five percent and tapped her fingers along to the catchy cookie cutter pop rhythms of Cute Is What We Aim For.


	10. Brooding Poets and Hamburgers

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks, just Allie and her old team, and the layout of the rink is like the one we have in Wake Forest called the Factory. Just in case anyone recognizes it…

Author's note: Okay…no new reviews. I dunno if I should feel discouraged or grateful that people are reading, and just not reviewing. Ah well, I do this because I like writing, but some reviews would be INSANELY awesome, because I'm nervous about putting myself out there for everyone to see. Some reassurance would be lovely, but I can't really complain. Oh, and if you enjoy a good Newsies story, head on over to Mids-all-the-Way's story called Prison Breakers. It rocks, and I'm not just saying that because I know her or anything…. Anyway, here's chapter ten. Let me know what you think. Please?

* * *

"Hello?"

"Afternoon, Em," Allie said, using a British accent. "Fancy some tea, darling?"

"Hey, Al, how was the second day of hell?" Emily replied, laughing and adopting the accent as well. "Is it getting too hot? I hope you brought shorts."

"Yeah, I packed six pair. Classes were boring, but they would be the same if I was in Edina," Allie answered, sitting down on one of the benches in the courtyard that sat in the middle of the Eden Hall campus. Trees swayed above her in the breeze, and the sun was just beginning to sink below the buildings. One thing she appreciated about Eden was its impeccable grounds, and she liked the atmosphere of the courtyard.

"Well I disagree, Miss Faulkner! We got a new art teacher, and he's _crazy_! Like, batty, kill you in your sleep crazy. He threw a pair of scissors at the bulletin board today in the middle of class, and Mackenzie Bell screamed so loud! I can't believe your missing our insanity," Emily sighed, making an attempt to guilt Allie into coming back.

"You think I don't have any crazy teachers here? Sheesh, you should meet my Algebra Two professor, she scares the dean! She's so intense about math, and I think she had an aneurysm today when one of the boys in my class didn't know how to calculate a quadratic equation!" They laughed for a moment before Emily sobered.

"Hey, I was talking to Rebecca this morning in homeroom, and she thought of this _awesome_ idea!" she gushed, trailing off dramatically.

"Yeah? Was it awesome enough for you to tell me what it was?" Allie asked sarcastically, crossing her legs and folding her right arm under her left elbow to support her cell phone hand.

"You're no fun," Emily pouted. "Ugh, she thought we should go to the local skating rink during Open Skate and hang out this Saturday!"

"Like I don't skate over here?" Allie snorted, rolling her eyes. Emily made an offended noise in the back of her throat, and Allie relented. "Fine, I like the idea, I'm just trying to be difficult. So what time should I get there?"

"Ten-thirty, we plan on staying the entire time," Emily replied happily, clearly bouncing up and down like a demented Tigger doll. "Some of the old team hangs out there on Saturdays too, so you might get an early reunion!"

"Sounds like fun, I'll see you on Saturday! I'm going to bed, I think I'm about to pass out," Allie said, yawning widely and shutting her phone at Emily's goodbye.

* * *

"Allie!" Rebecca Dolan screamed, running over to her and wrapping her into a tight hug. Emily soon joined in, and the three old friends were dancing around happily in a circle with their arms around each others' necks. "Come on, let's go have some fun!"

"Yeah, do you guys still have your own skates or do you have to rent?" Allie asked, picking up her smaller duffle and patting the side of it where the outline of one of her skates could be seen. Emily held up her own bag with skates in it, but Rebecca sighed dramatically.

"Alas, my mother threw them out when I decided to quit the team. She insisted that the 'transformation' would never be complete unless I tossed them," she said, using air quotes around transformation and rolling her eyes. "Okay, so the rink was pretty empty when I looked in a minute ago, so it'll just be us for a while."

"Cool! Let's go get you some skates and pay the entry fee," Allie said, throwing her arm around Rebecca's shoulders and leading her into the complex. They stopped at the rentals desk and paid their dues, then went over to one of the tables that had benches set up to put on their skates.

"So what have you been up to, Al?" Rebecca asked, tying her laces into a neat bow and pulling her jeans down over the boot.

"It's school, Becks, what do you think I've been up to? I've got no time to knit, if that's what you're asking," Allie laughed, standing up and leaning back and forth on her edges.

"You know what I mean," Rebecca snapped, standing up as well and towering over her smaller friend. "How's the new team?"

"Awful," Emily replied for her, walking towards the entrance to the rink without wobbling once. Rebecca, however, was a different story. "Hey! It's true what they say on TV: Weebles wobble but they _don't_ fall down!" Emily laughed, sticking her tongue out as Rebecca turned red. "Kidding, Becca."

"Yeah, I'm so sure," Becca muttered, making a face at her as she walked through the door. "Oh, hey, isn't that Nate, Braxton, and Schuyler?" she asked, pointing at the other side of the rink where three boys were leaning over the boards into the bench area.

"Shush! I wanna scare them," Allie whispered, holding a finger up to her lips and smirking evilly. She skated out onto the ice and sprinted towards the boys, keeping her blades on the ice for minimal noise. When she got about ten feet away, she yelled, "Nathan Crowley!" and skated the rest of the way quickly before he could turn around, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and resting her cheek against his shoulder.

Nate yelled and spun around, taking her with him, and looked in alarm at Braxton.

"Allie, what the hell?" Braxton asked tiredly, raising one eyebrow.

"Hey, Braxy," she replied, grinning and detaching herself from Nate so she could hug him as well. "How's it going?"

"I'm gonna _kill_ you!" Nate roared, grabbing her around the waist and hoisting her up onto his shoulder roughly. She yelped and shrieked, hitting him on the back playfully like she used to when he pulled this trick.

"Just because I'm smaller then you doesn't mean you can go around picking me up like a sack of potatoes, Nate!" she exclaimed when he put her down, scowling jokily before going over and giving the quiet boy by the boards a hug. "Hey, Schuyler, what's going on?"

"You're asking me that?" he chuckled, putting an arm around her shoulders lazily and leaning on her. She almost fell over, but braced herself by widening her stance and resting more weight on the skate nearest him.

"So, Al, you've graced the lowly residents of Edina with your glittering presence. What for?" Braxton asked with a grin, dodging her fist as she took a weak swing at him.

"You're a jerk, you know that?" she snapped, turning her nose up into the air. "I'm here because I was asked, dipstick."

"Hostile much, Al?" Nate said with a laugh, giving her a noogie that escalated into an all-out war between the boys and the girls.

"I'm gonna get you!" Emily cried, skating off in pursuit of Schuyler, who had scraped up some ice shavings and dumped them on her head. Allie laughed, skating around Nate and avoiding his attempts at grabbing her.

"You're slower then I remember," she joked, cutting sharply to the left and skating backwards. Almost instantly, she knocked into someone and was grabbed, being held up by her upper arms. "Hey!" she started, her face already falling into a frown as she tipped her head back to look at the person keeping her from doing a face-plant.

"Okay, you can drop her now," Nate growled from in front of her, folding his arms over his chest. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Adam Banks, I'm on the Eden Hall team with Allie," Banks replied, letting Allie go after making sure she was steady and extending a hand to Nate. Skeptically, Nate shook with him and looked him up and down, sizing him up. "So…fancy running into you at the rink," he said to Allie, a lame attempt at lightening the mood hanging dully in the air.

"Well, I do enjoy skating," Allie said dryly, glancing over at her friends that had just skated over to them and were lined up behind Nate.

"Who's that?" Braxton asked rudely, wincing as Emily slammed her elbow into his stomach.

"Yeah, who's your friend, Al?" Rebecca echoed, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

"Guys, this is one of my new teammates, Adam Banks. Banks, these are a couple of my old friends: Braxton, Nate, Schuyler, Rebecca, and Emily," Allie rattled off, rolling her eyes and waving vaguely at the people behind her. "So why are you here, again?"

"I'm skating…," he trailed off, his expression explaining that it was obvious what he was doing, and he wished she'd be a little nicer. "Okay…I'm gonna go. See you later, Allie. Nice meeting you guys." He skated off and started doing leisurely laps around the rink, moving fluidly and looking perfectly at home on the old rink.

"Spill it!" Emily whispered, grabbing Allie by the elbow and dragging her over to an open penalty box, Rebecca in tow. When they were standing inside and had closed the door, Emily whirled on Allie and let her jaw fall open. "_Who was that?!"_ she demanded forcefully.

"Adam Banks…?" Allie replied, shrinking back against the glass panel and giving her friend a scared look. "What?"

"Okay, you conveniently forgot to mention the fact that you had a hot guy on the team when you were going on about how they treat you like rubbish!" Emily shrieked, still whispering because Banks had chosen just that moment to skate by. Once his back was to their box, Emily gesticulated wildly at him and pointed blatantly. "WHY?!"

"Gee, I suppose I was caught up in the fact that I have, like, three or four friends over there and I was too busy loathing him for beating me on my first day," Allie deadpanned, looking back at her friend like a zombie might look at a particularly dull bit of wall.

"Wait, he beat you? Like, in what?" Rebecca cut in, looking interested at the thought of her former captain being beaten.

"In three-bar, and it's because I suck. Period. Compared to them, I'm pathetic. It's sad watching me out there, really, I'd advise avoiding it at all costs," Allie told her, nodding exaggeratedly. "Anyway, he's Banks. I mean, he's actually nice. Am I nice? Huh-uh."

"That is true," Emily conceded, laughing and dodging a swat from Allie. "No! Hey, come on, I was just kidding! Really, Al, don't be so down on yourself. It'll get better, and by the end of the season you'll be skating circles around them!"

"I…do that…already," Allie said in a small voice, widening her eyes and looking like a deer in the headlights.

"OH! You know what I mean, stop that!" Emily ordered, narrowing her eyes at her friend. "And him being nice doesn't prevent you from telling us about him! I'm tempted not to speak to you for at least a week!" She turned her nose up and sniffed snobbishly.

"Oh, would you? I'd enjoy the silence, and Rebecca might actually be able to talk to a boy without you rushing in first!" Allie snapped, unlatching the door to the penalty box and skating off in the direction of Braxton and the other boys.

"Why's he here?" Braxton asked her immediately after she skated up to them, his eyes flashing with that older brother protective thing he had going on.

"Stop being a jerk, Braxy, and let me worry about the issues, okay?" she asked heatedly, propping her fists on her hips and looking up at him angrily.

"Fine, but I don't like him," Braxton replied darkly, crossing his arms.

"Ducky for you," she growled, exiting the rink and sitting on one of the sets of bleachers that lined the wall, tapping the ice off her skates and grinding it into the carpeting. After years of experience, the staff at the rink had finally stopped reprimanding her for this and had just taken to ignoring the spots she tended to hang out in, leaving them to clean only once a week with a wet-and-dry vacuum and lots of spot cleaner.

"Are you doing a starving artist imitation or a brooding poet one?" Banks asked, coming to sit on the bench above hers and stretching his legs out in front of him.

"Neither, I'm doing a my friends are extreme morons impression. It's popular with the fans, though strangely deplored by my critics," she replied, leaning back against the bleacher and crossing her arms over her stomach. "So what's your deal? Why are you here alone?"

"Don't have any good friends in Edina, and the Ducks decided to go to the Mall of America today to get in trouble…again," he answered, grinning at his friends' antics.

"Sounds like a rousing good time, why didn't you join them?" Her tone was a bit hostile, but she was really interested to know why he was here and not, well, _there._

"I had to come home for the weekend and see my brother before he heads off to another year of college, and I figured I'd log some time in at my old skating hangout. I used to come here all the time before the Ducks came along, and now I hardly come at all," he said, leaning forward and propping his elbows on his knees.

"Don't college people have all the luck? They go back later then we do, and they choose their own hours--pretty much. My brother just finished college and is playing pro hockey down in North Carolina with the Hurricanes." Banks nodded appreciatively and pointed to the Hurricanes logo on the front of her black sweatshirt. "Yup, he sent me this for my birthday this summer. Right, well I'm off to spend some more time with the special ones. See you back at school Monday."

"Yeah, see you at school," he called as she walked off to the entrance and skated over to Nate.

Allie ignored Emily and Rebecca's incredulous stares and began joking back and forth with Nate, the only one of her guy teammates who seemed to have forgiven her for actually _knowing_ another boy outside of their old team. They skated around for a bit and caught back up, chatting about school and hockey teams and the upcoming season, before it was time to get some lunch from the built-in snack bar that was between the skating rink and the hockey rink.

"Hey, can I get some nachos, a Twix bar, and a fruit punch Gatorade, please?" Allie asked the girl working at the counter, grinning at the horrified look she received at her strange order. After paying and getting her food, she went over to one of the tables and started eating, looking into the hockey rink and seeing some guys playing a pickup game.

"Are you _trying_ to die at a young age from food poisoning?" Schuyler asked her as he sat down on the other side, picking up his hamburger and taking a monstrous bite out of it.

"Nope, are you trying to die choking on that bite?" she returned, raising an eyebrow as he fought to chew the chunk he'd bitten off.

"Nah," he murmured around the burger, grinning and swallowing with a laborious effort.

"Gross!" she exclaimed as the lump moved down his throat and disappeared past his clavicle, gagging jokily and dropping the chip she was holding. "Do you want me to throw up?"

"That depends…would you do it on me or on Nate, because he kind of needs a bit of a put-down," Schuyler laughed, cuffing the boy in question on the shoulder as he sat down with an apple and a bottle of water.

"I hate you for your healthy eating habits," Allie confided, snatching the apple and twisting the stem off absently. "You're altogether too perfect for your own good, and that's why you have no girlfriend." He growled and took the apple back, stealing one of her chips and chucking it at her face.

"You don't know what you're talking about," he muttered, taking a bite out of the crunchy pulp and pulling a face.

"Sure I don't, I'm just a girl after all. Wouldn't want to take any tips from me or anything, that certainly wouldn't help you," she scoffed, watching a hockey player skate by and toss his gloves up into the air out of boredom. "I'm going to go watch the game, see you punks later." She stood and brought her food with her, walking into the other rink and taking a seat on the official bleachers.

Allie sighed, feeling at home in the familiar rink, watching hockey and eating her nachos. Secretly, she felt that she would rather live here at the complex then at her own home, because she'd be around everything she loved without being criticized for it at all.


	11. Lions, Madrigals, and Bears: Oh My!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks, Eden Hall, or the Blake Bears. Just Allie and her crazy old teammates.

Author's note: Ah! Thank you for the reviews! Thank you so much! Okay, so here's another chapter, and it's fairly long as well! Woot! I'm done with the exclamation points, don't worry. Phew, I've been writing on this all day, and Edge knows what I'm talking about. Here you go, doll, no more waiting. You can get your freakish amount of sleep now. Thanks again, review for me?

* * *

The next week was a monotonous cycle of classes, practices, and homework. Allie spend almost every night in the library with her head buried in the pages of a book, or scribbling furiously on some long, complicated math problem that seemed impossible until you found just the right equation. Between the work she did in the classroom and the physical exertion she was forced to endure outside of it, she was beat by Friday morning.

Having been instructed by Connie to do so, she was dressed in a nice pair of jeans and her game jersey, with the number thirteen emblazoned on the back in red under her last name. Feeling awkward and out of place, she walked down the hall to her locker and hoped no one noticed her.

"Allie, what's up?" Jason asked, coming up behind her and hooking an arm around her shoulders. She smiled tiredly and shrugged, dragging her duffle along the ground lazily.

"Game tonight," she replied, plucking at her jersey lamely and trying not to look too disinterested. He laughed and removed his arm when they got in sight of the Ducks, shoving his hands in his pockets and leaning against the bit of wall next to the lockers. Allie bent down and nudged Portman out of the way, too exhausted to attempt to bargain with him, so she could open her lock and get rid of some of her things.

"You could just say please, you know," he told her, making room for her small frame and bracing himself with a hand on his own locker door.

"I could, but would you listen?" she asked, looking up at him and pushing at her duffle to try and fit it on the shelf.

"No, but you could say it anyway," he said stubbornly, taking out his English book and balancing it precariously on the top of her head. "Just hold that for a minute, would ya?"

"NO!" she bellowed, tipping her head backward and sending the book skidding into the wave of students jostling down the hall. Some one kicked it back over, though, so her evil plot had been thwarted and Portman merely bent down to retrieve it before whacking her with it.

"Thanks." With this, he slammed his locker shut and walked away in the direction of English.

"Great, now he'll stay awake and force me to stand up so I can see," she muttered to herself, gathering the necessary items for the next three periods and sighing tragically. Jason laughed next to her, shaking his head and blowing some hair from his eyes.

"Most people talk to themselves _inside_ their heads," he confided, taking her pile of books and settling them in the crook of his arm.

"Thank you?" she half-said/half-asked, furrowing her brow at his new display of supposed chivalry. He just kind of looked at her, then started off to their English class with her books, making it so she had to follow him if she ever wanted them back.

"You're welcome," he called over his shoulder as she hurried to catch up, shouldering her backpack and jogging towards him on tired, overworked legs. "You do have a game today, after all. Wouldn't want you to overexert yourself until you get out on the ice."

"Oh yeah, I wouldn't want to be tired while I'm sitting on the bench," she retorted, rolling her eyes and falling into step with him.

"God, the _bench_? Take your books back, I don't perform acts of chivalry for benchwarmers," he laughed, pretending to give them back.

"Shut up! I feel bad enough about it already without you being mean!" she exclaimed, turning into the English room and snatching the books from him before anyone saw.

"I'm sorry, I was just kidding," he apologized, taking his seat and turning around so he could see her. She pulled a face, crossing her eyes and wrinkling her nose to show him that she was kidding as well, and had just fooled him.

"Glad you did like I said." Allie looked over at Connie and grinned to see that she wasn't the only one wearing a jersey, noticing that she had tied her usual braid off with a red bow and had woven a white one through one of the strands.

"Oh, you're hair's cute!" Allie exclaimed, reaching over and picking up the twisted hair to run her fingers over the ribbon.

"Thanks, Julie helped me out. She's good at braiding hair," Connie replied, smiling and waving in Julie's general direction. "So are you excited about tonight's game? We play first, then Varsity, and we stay to see them sometimes."

"Um, excited? I guess, at least I get to watch a game," she said, shrugging indifferently.

"Oh, come on, Orion plays everyone," Connie told her comfortingly. Allie smiled gratefully, happy to know that her friends weren't coming out for nothing, and straightened as the teacher came in to begin class in the same manner as always--with an assignment.

* * *

Allie met Jason at the cafeteria doors, walking inside with him and going over to the line to get the usual Friday meal: a hotdog with the works, French fries, and a Mountain Dew. He followed her with his hamburger, paying and then trailing after her over to the Ducks' table. Allie sat down first and he placed his tray beside hers, pulling out the wooden chair and preparing to sit in it.

"No," Charlie said shortly, halting his progress instantly with his harsh tone.

"What?" Allie asked in confusion, turning to face him with a puzzled expression on her face. Everyone was looking at either Jason or Charlie, waiting for something to happen and being uncharacteristically silent.

"He can't sit here," Charlie replied, sneaking a sidelong glance at Banks, who was looking down at his food with increased interest.

"Why? What do you have against him?" Allie turned angry now, her features adopting a hard look at this new attempt to keep her miserable. Charlie refused to say, merely shaking his head and crossing his arms over his chest. "Then let him sit here! He's my friend. Please?"

"Ask Banksie." Now all the Ducks and Jason turned to look at Banks, who was attempting to fold in on himself and become as small as possible.

"Banks?" Allie asked hopefully, smiling in what she hoped was a persuasive manner.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, whatever," he replied, meeting her eyes for a second before dropping them back down to his plate and twirling his fork between his fingers. Jason smirked triumphantly, sitting down and scooting up to the table smugly as if he belonged there. Charlie looked at him with malice, knowing that just next period, Jason would return to being insufferable and rude.

Lunch was quiet that day, most of the Ducks having sensed the hostility radiating off Charlie and the particular way Banks avoided looking in Allie and Jason's direction, and it passed without further confrontation. Allie said goodbye to Jason and meandered off to her art class, still deep in thought about why Charlie had insisted that Jason couldn't sit with them.

* * *

"Hello and welcome to the first game of the new season: our own Eden Hall Mighty Ducks versus the ferocious Blake Bears! Looks like it'll be an exciting game, folks, so hold on to your hats and let's welcome our teams!" the announcer said, his usual annoying imitation of a real announcer grating on Allie's already frayed nerves.

"You'll learn to tune everything out," Connie whispered as they walked down the hall leading to the rink, hearing the crowd roaring and booing as the Bears came out of their locker room. "I remember recreation, and there are tons more people here at high school games."

"Thanks for making me feel better," Allie muttered, emerging into the open, full, extremely crowded stadium area and looking around in awe. The other players filed past her, understanding the shock of seeing that many people in one arena, and only Banks stopped and grabbed her by the elbow, towing her onto the ice and skating off without a word.

They began doing laps around their half of the ice, leaving their gear in the center and skating through their usual warm-ups. Allie's heart was beating furiously as she scanned the crowd, her eyes flitting over a group of varsity players in their letterman jackets and across the sea of parents that were waving and shouting at their children. A small section of the bleachers were taken up by supporters of the Bears, dressed in blue and screaming for their team, but they were overwhelmed by the red Eden Hall families and students.

"All right, come to the bench!" Coach Orion called over the noise of the crowd, beckoning the Ducks to him and staring down at his roster. "Okay, so I want Gaffney in goal, Portman and Fulton out on defense, and then Banks, Conway, and Germaine on the front line. Have a good game, Ducks. Play like I know you can. Hands in!"

"Quack, quack, quack, quack!" they chanted, pumping their arms up and down excitedly. Allie joined in awkwardly, feeling completely intrusive and strange including herself in their pre-game routine, and tried to keep her voice down to an inconspicuous volume.

The buzzer sounded for the game to begin, and the starting lineup took the ice confidently. Banks squared off with Blake's captain for the face-off, hunching down over his stick and looking intently at the puck the referee held in his hands. Once it was dropped, the two players scuffled for a moment before Banks sent the puck sailing back to Charlie in triumph. The playing commenced, with the three offensive Ducks passing back and forth until they reached the goal and Guy shot. It slid in just under the goalie's leg, making the crowd whoop and scream and causing the Blake players to look prematurely defeated.

"Goldberg, Robertson, change it!" Orion barked, scanning the ice critically and watching the Blake offense attempt to get by Portman, who was going on a rampage while laughing heartily. The players changed often and quickly, but Allie stayed on the bench through the first four goals and the entire first period and half of the second.

"Conway, Faulkner!" Orion snapped, gesturing at the ice absently. Charlie immediately hopped off the bench, skating away quickly to get a piece of the action, but Allie hesitated for a moment to make sure she wasn't hearing things.

"Go!" Connie urged, shooing her out as Kenny skated up to replace her. She swung a leg over the boards and got over them, skating towards Banks who was breaking for the goal. Two huge enforcers from Blake blocked her path, standing shoulder to shoulder and squatting down for better balance, but she cut sharply to the right and swerved around them before they knew she had gone. If there was one thing she knew how to do in a hockey game, it was avoid being smashed.

"Banks!" she yelled, tapping her stick on the ice while looking out for potential threats with her peripheral vision. He turned and locked eyes with her, sending the puck her way and skating to the goal, calling for it again when he had an open shot. She maneuvered her way around three defenders and passed it back to him, giving a little shriek when he scored.

The team converged on him in celebration, hugging him and nudging his head with their gloves, and Allie slapped him a high-five. He grinned and they skated back to their original places to resume the game. Play wore on steadily, with Blake only scoring once before the half was over, and not again for the rest of the game. Allie cycled through twice more, giving another assist and knocking one Bear head over heels with the same move she'd done on Banks during three-bar. Needless to say, the Ducks won quite easily and the Bears were put in their proper place.

"We won!" Connie cried, jumping up and down while hanging onto both Julie's and Allie's necks. They exchanged a look and then burst out laughing, jumping with her and celebrating their enormous win: seven to one.

"How'd you like your first high school game, Transfer?" Julie asked with a broad smile on her face, standing up fully and removing her gloves.

"God, it was so exhilarating!" Allie exclaimed, tipping her head back and laughing as the crowd poured out of the stands and stood around the outside of the rink. "Who knew it would actually be fun to play in front of so many people?"

"Knew you'd like it!" Dwayne cut in, walking over and swinging an arm around her shoulders. She grinned and they all went into the locker rooms, laughing and talking about the more exciting bits of play, such as Banks' hat trick and Julie's huge save.

* * *

Allie emerged from the locker rooms with her hair hanging in a wet pony tail and wearing jeans and a long-sleeved green Henley that she'd gotten on a trip to the mall just before school had started. Gathered at the entrance were her old teammates, waiting with giant smiles on their faces. She ran the rest of the way once she'd seen them, dropping her duffle and sprinting over to the first person she reached: Nate.

"Hey! I'm so glad you guys came!" she gushed, hugging him tightly and then moving on to the others. Once she'd greeted all of them, she stepped back and took them in. "Bryon, what did you do to your hair?" she asked one tall, blond boy, staring at the spiky remains of his once skater-length locks.

"I cut it," he replied, going over and getting her into a headlock, refusing to let go until she'd cried for mercy. "You're still the same: annoying and rude!"

"Yeah? Well, if I were still your captain, you'd be doing push-ups right now!" she exclaimed, tickling him lightly around his ribs. "So, Braxy, I hear this get-together was your idea?" she asked, turning to her old second-in-command and tilting her head jauntily.

"Sure was, all me," he nodded, grinning as the team jumped on him, raining punches onto his back and head. "Whoa! Uncle, uncle!" They collapsed into a fit of giggles, getting back into their old groove of making fun of each other about the most inappropriate things and making up different scenarios for their first official recreation game.

"I think we're going to bite it, since Allie's gone," Nate offered jokily, picking her up and putting her on his shoulder.

"I don't like heights!" she shrieked, hanging onto his head for dear life and feeling her chest seize up. Everyone laughed as Nate twirled her around, causing her to squeal and look like she was about to cry. "Nathan Alexander Crowley! Put me down now!"

"It's a good thing you're short," Schuyler told her, grabbing her hands and pulling her down off Nate's shoulder. She breathed a sigh of relief, collapsing onto her new favorite person and squeezing him so tightly he began to turn red. "Get off," he muttered, taking her arms and pulling them from around his middle with an enormous effort.

"I love you! You totally saved my life, and I'm forever in your debt!" she professed dramatically, making them all laugh again. "Come on, you guys can walk me back to my dorm, and I _might_ let you come eat with me in the cafeteria!" They followed her back down the hall the way she'd come, Bryon picking up her duffle for her and carrying it like the gentleman he was.


	12. Systematic Destruction of Relationships

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks, Disney does. Allie, the Madrigals, and the evil Jason are all mine.

Author's note: I'm not too sure about this one being liked by you guys, but it makes me laugh because of certain friends, the names of which I will not mention. Jason, of course, can't stay around forever, so this might be his last appearance. Reviews are totally loved, and I'd like to know your opinion on this, because I have a feeling you guys might not like it so much. I dunno, you tell me! Oh, sorry for the bit of a wait, I've been doing actual activities lately, like skating and helping out at my school with the incoming freshmen, so I haven't written too much.

* * *

"So, Allie, when are you going to treat us do dinner?" Emily asked conversationally as she and Rebecca--the only two Madrigals Allie permitted to enter her room--walked around and fixed things, moving them around and arranging picture frames neatly.

"Are you kidding? The US government doesn't have enough money to treat these monkeys to dinner, so how would I?" Allie laughed in reply, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder at the boys who stood just outside the door, looking bored and antsy. "Nah, I'll take you over there, but you're paying for yourselves."

"Sounds about fair, they can pay for us," Rebecca purposed, grinning at Braxton when he pulled a face. Allie smiled and waved everyone off, shooing them down the hall and out of the building. They walked in a pack down the sidewalk toward the cafeteria, Allie and the other girls in the lead, talking and being generally noisy. Once they'd filtered into the lunchroom and had gone through the line, Allie noticed the Ducks sitting at their usual table, and tried to catch Connie's eye.

"Hey, Connie, do you remember me talking about my old team?" she asked once they reached them. Connie looked up and smiled at the assembled Madrigals, giving a small wave. "Yeah…this is my new team, the Ducks. Ducks, these are the Madrigals--my old team."

"Thanks for giving her up," Portman said sarcastically, though clearly joking about this jibe. She made a face and Emily laughed, giving her a sideways hug.

"It was tough, but we're happy to hand her over to such a nice, supportive team," Nate replied through gritted teeth. Rebecca and Allie elbowed him in the stomach at the same time, causing him to wheeze and curse under his breath.

"Uh, anyway, can we sit here?" Allie asked, keeping the defenseman in check by standing on his foot with light pressure. Connie nodded to the row of empty seats stretching out beside her, the rest of the Ducks agreeing with her. "Thanks," Allie said happily, bouncing down to the middle of the section and plopping down into a random chair. Nate sat on her left and promptly threw an arm around the back of her chair, leaning backward and propping his feet up on the chair across from him.

"Move your feet, or I swear I'll sit on them," Emily ordered, tapping the toe of one of his Vans and putting her plate of spaghetti down on the table. He grinned, shrugging and pressing his tongue against the back of his teeth in mocking. "Oh yeah? Fine." She began undoing the bright green laces of his right shoe, untangling them from the black ones he'd woven in, and pulled them out.

"Hey! I worked for, like, an hour to put those things in right!" he exclaimed, pulling his feet down off the seat of the chair and leaning across the table. She smirked, sitting down and dangling the laces in front of his face.

"That's sad." Down the laces went, flopping uselessly into his macaroni and cheese and thusly becoming a sticky, nasty mess.

"Now how am I going to tie my shoes?" he asked indignantly, slamming a hand down onto the wooden tabletop in a brief flash of anger.

"Aw, poor baby," Allie cooed sarcastically, pinching his cheeks. "Nate only has one shoelace to tuck in and _not_ tie. Whatever shall we do, Becks?" She poked him in the side, laughing at his perverse expression and leaning over to give him an apologetic hug. He knocked her away playfully, making a face to match hers, and then looked down the table toward the Ducks.

"Hey, Adam, right?" Nate called to the tall boy, mouthing "Yeah, you!" when he looked over at them. "Come sit down here, I want to talk to you for a minute." Banks looked shell-shocked for a moment, and then snapped out of it when Charlie asked him something that looked along the lines of, "How do you know them?" Slowly, he got up and walked down the line of tables, stopping at the chair next to Emily's and sitting down in it hesitantly.

"Yeah?" he asked warily, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the table. Nate grinned widely, causing the intimidation factor to increase greatly because of the fakeness of the smile.

"How's life for you, man?" Nate began, clasping his hands on the table in front of him and trying to look businesslike.

"Nate, seriously, what the hell?" Emily snapped, attempting to halt the steady progression that would surely lead to bloodshed or tears. Allie flashed her a confused look, and Emily replied by scooting her chair back and pointing at Banks' back, waving a hand as if she'd gotten a hot flash. Scrunching up her face and sticking out her tongue, Allie returned to the conversation between the boys.

"Just the usual: hockey and school, hanging out with my friends," Adam replied dutifully, feeling the need to give in to every demand Nate made.

"That's cool. So, you live around Edina? No one uses that rink unless they grew up with it," Nate continued, stabbing some noodles with his fork and popping them into his mouth.

"You really need to know where he _lives_?" Rebecca cut in incredulously, stealing a bite of macaroni off his plate while he wasn't looking. Nate simply nodded, keeping his eyes trained on Banks' face with eerie persistence.

"Uh, yeah, I live in Edina. I used to play for the Hawks, but the lines were redrawn," Adam told him, looking completely uncomfortable.

"Are you done?" Allie groaned, shoving Nate's shoulder and making him break his staring contest. "Sorry, Banks, I don't know what he thinks he's doing."

"You aren't supposed to know, you're a _girl_," Nate retorted, using a childish tone. "Cootie Queens aren't allowed to know what the male mind is cooking up."

"Now that we've gotten the male chauvinistic part of the evening over with, can we move on to the part where you explain why you're being a moron?!" Allie yelled into his ear, making all the Ducks turn in her direction and stare blankly. Suddenly, Allie felt a sharp kick to her shin, and she turned angrily to face Emily.

"Al," Emily mumbled, staring at a place above Allie's left shoulder with a slightly drooping jaw.

"Switching teams again, Banks? You've sure got a talent for friend-hopping, I'll give you that," Jason jeered, crossing his arms and leveling his piercing eyes at Banks.

"Jason?" Allie asked in confusion, turning around and looking up at him. He didn't seem to register that she was there, but just sort of flinched at his name and continued staring straight ahead.

"What do you want?" Adam sighed tiredly, slumping slightly as the air whooshed from his lungs and seeming to completely deflate.

"Just wondering who you intend to force yourself on this time," Jason said flippantly, shrugging.

"Okay, seriously, what?" Allie asked, trying to insert herself into the conversation once again. With a glance behind her at Banks, she noticed how totally defeated he looked, and wondered what he had to do with Jason.

"We used to be on a team together--the Hawks, like I said earlier," Adam said quietly, looking as if he wished to crawl inside himself until his former teammate had gone.

"Do you follow him around just to make him miserable?" Charlie piped up, walking down the aisle behind Adam and taking up a position between him and Emily. "I'm getting pretty sick of you, always turning up in the most random places and torturing us during class."

"Will _someone_ please tell me what's going on? Jason, what are they talking about?" Allie pleaded, getting fed up. This time he did look down at her, grinning wolfishly.

"I think Banks should give this little history lesson, but I've gotta go. Check you later, Banksie. Fly together, ducklings." He walked off without any other explanation, causing Allie to scream in frustration and stand up, intent on finding out--from him--what was happening. Nate grabbed her arm, pulling her back, but she yanked free and tore through the cafeteria behind Jason.

"Okay, do you have, like, _two personalities_ or something?" she huffed once she'd caught him, stepping into his path and moving with him so he couldn't sidestep her. "I mean, really?"

"Nope, just one me," he said, almost goofily, and tried to get around her again.

"Then how do you explain nice, happy Jason that meets me in the morning before English, and then mean, abusive Jason that just attacked Banks back there in the cafeteria?" She put her hands on her hips and glared up at him, waiting for an answer.

"Two different circumstances, not personalities," he replied, shrugging.

"That is _so_ retarded!" she yelped, throwing up her hands and rolling her eyes. "Those 'circumstances' had better morph into one, you Michael Pitt impersonator, or I don't think I can be friends with you. Who _does_ that, anyway?"

"People with a past that doesn't involve shiny cars and sparkling relationships," he grunted, looking nonplused and relaxed as he leaned up against the wall.

"You are a _freak_," she exclaimed, dodging around him and going back to the cafeteria with her mind spinning. Making her way back over to the tables, she noticed that Adam and Braxton were talking fairly normally, and Portman had replaced Banks in his conversation with Nate and was doing a model of some kind of check that Allie wasn't sure was permitted in any league.

Grabbing Rebecca by her shoulder, she jerked her head over her shoulder and made eye contact with Emily. Once back outside, Allie sagged against a nearby wall and let out an enormous sigh.

"Hey, what happened out here?" Emily asked, tilting her head quizzically and narrowing her eyes at her friend. "What was that dude's deal, and was that _the_ Jason?"

"Big fight, I don't know, and yeah, that's him," Allie replied. "He's such a jerk! He's all nice to me in the morning, and then after we're not anywhere near each other he goes off and acts like that! Banks isn't my favorite person, but he's still my teammate, and he shouldn't get treated like that. I don't even know what it was about, but I know it makes him mad."

"Mad? The kid looked like he wanted to get swallowed by the Great White Whale right then and there!" Rebecca exclaimed, laughing disbelievingly.

"Okay, so it makes Charlie mad. Whatever, either way he's messing with my team. Not cool." Emily grimaced sympathetically, reaching out and squeezing Allie's shoulder reassuringly.

"He was totally gorgeous. Too bad about the asshole-ish tendencies," she sighed regretfully, shaking her head.

"Whatever, I don't care. I mean, yeah, I liked him and he made me laugh, but he's a _jerk!_" Allie groaned, holding her head in her hands. "Okay, so we need, like, a boy scanner that makes it impossible to go out with a jerk, because it will explode or beep, or something like that."

"I'd go with the beeping, it's much less 'Hey! Put me on the news, I just blew up my locker _and_ the guy I liked!'" Rebecca advised sensibly, grinning at Allie as she laughed.

"True that. Okay, back to dinner? I hear Schuyler's got some cool stories about one pickup game he went to recently. Some chicks were laughing at him, I hear," Allie said, leading them back into the cafeteria and immersing herself into the sensation of actually having friends at school.


	13. Mickey's

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks or Mickey's, just Allie.

Author's note: Yeah, okay, I'll admit it: updating hasn't been my top priority the past few days. I know, I suck. On a happier note, thanks for the reviews! They rock, and I'm glad you guys aren't angry with me for giving Jason the boot only six chapters after his debut. I kind of felt like he was clogging up the story, and needed to go, so he went! This isn't too long of an update, so I'm sorry about that as well, but hopefully once I get the ball rolling again the chapters will lengthen. Oh, and one more thing, that new Reader Traffic feature is amazing, is it not? How cool is it to know where people who read your story are from? Okay, I'm done--swear. Enjoy!

* * *

"Morning, Allie!" Connie sang, opening the door to her dorm room and opening the blinds so the whole room was flooded with sunlight. Allie squeaked and slammed her head face-first into her pillow, folding the sides of it up over her ears. "Wake up! We're taking you to one of our favorite places for lunch today, so you've got to get up. Come on," she said as Allie shook her head violently and dug herself further under her covers. "It's already ten-thirty!"

"Yeah, I know, and I had a whole other hour of sleep planned!" Allie cried, her voice muffled by the down in the pillow.

"An _hour?_" Connie asked incredulously, yanking the comforter back. Allie's legs curled instinctively to keep warm, and she groaned tiredly. "We're catching the bus at eleven, so if you're coming you need to get up!"

"How are you even awake after last night?" Allie grumbled, sitting up and stretching before smoothing her tangled hair into a ponytail. "I don't even know what time I went to sleep."

"I'm a morning person," Connie replied cheerfully, going over to Allie's dresser and digging through her clothes to find an outfit for her to wear. "Here, wear this," she ordered, tossing a pair of fitted jeans and a red tank top onto the foot of her bed. Allie muttered something under her breath before standing up and taking the clothes off the bed.

"Do you realize that it usually takes me five minutes of wallowing before I can even think about sitting up, much less get dressed?" Allie huffed, pulling the jeans on while Connie looked at the things sitting on her desk. "I mean, I _appreciate_ the mornings when I don't have to get up until noon if I don't want to," she continued, yanking the top over her head and muscling it into place before taking a belt off the door handle and threading it through the loops on her jeans.

"Appreciating and taking advantage of are two different things," Connie replied airily, pulling the hair tie out of Allie's hair when she bent over to retrieve a necklace off the floor. At her protests, Connie simply grinned and held out a brush. "Come on, I'll help you fix it. Ponytails are for practice and days you couldn't take a shower."

"Are you setting me up on a date or something? I never get dressed up to go to lunch." Connie laughed and took the brush away, pointing to the desk chair and taking a red hair band off the dresser beside all Allie's other hair products. "Do you know something I don't?"

"That depends on what you know," Connie responded vaguely, shrugging and combing out a patch of hair near Allie's temple. "I'm assuming you know the deal with last night, though--the one with that Jason guy you've hung around with for the past two weeks."

"Oh, I know the deal. God, does the whole team think I'm a traitor or what?" she sighed, lowering her head and yanking the section of hair out of Connie's hands.

"Sit up straight! No, of course not. We didn't even know, just Charlie and Adam, so no one blames you or anything," Connie explained, redoing the section and braiding it towards the back of her head. She repeated this process with the other side, and then twisted the braids together and tied the whole thing off with the band.

"Well, at least I found out how horrible he was before he asked me out or something." They both laughed, and Connie held up a small mirror so Allie could see her hair. Once she was happy with her reflection--makeup included--Allie went to the bathroom across the hall and brushed her teeth, coming back into her room just as Connie hung up from a phone call.

"That was Guy, he said they're out at the bus stop whenever we're ready," she told Allie, sliding the phone into an outer pocket on her purse and shouldering it. "You good?"

"Yeah, lemme just grab my purse," Allie replied, nodding and picking up her Hurley bag from its resting place near the desk. They walked off after she'd locked the door, meeting up with Julie at the end of the hall where she was waiting for them.

"Hey guys, Charlie just texted me saying that we had three minutes," Julie said when they reached her, shouldering the door open and stuffing her phone into her pocket.

"We'll make it," Connie said confidently, grinning and linking arms with the other two.

"Sorry, she kind of had to drag me out of bed," Allie apologized, rushing to match their fast pace.

"It's cool, we're gonna make it," Julie replied, turning the corner around the library building and directing the group to the Eden Hall arch. They emerged from the campus just as the bus pulled up and the other Ducks began to board, running over and climbing on behind Portman and Kenny.

"Hey! You made it!" Dwayne exclaimed, pulling Allie down between him and Adam. She grinned at him and took her purse off her arm when she realized it was hitting Adam in the side.

"You look nice," Adam said absently, looking down at her when she removed her purse.

"Ha, thanks. Tell that to Connie, I am her Frankenstein monster," Allie replied, laughing and brushing some small tendrils of hair from her eyes. "She'll be happy to know someone appreciates her fine work."

"Yeah, I bet," he agreed, smiling weakly and looking awkwardly at the floor between his feet.

"I don't plan on forcing you to tell me what last night was about, in case you were wondering," Allie told him, figuring that was what was making him so weird. "Tell me or don't, it kind of isn't my business. Hang on--are you actually wearing a t-shirt? Adam Banks, King of the Ralph Lauren Polo Shirts, is wearing a t-shirt?"

"Ha-ha, very funny," he deadpanned, pulling a face and rolling his eyes.

"No, wait, isn't this something to document? Should I take a picture and post it on the internet?" He ignored her and she laughed, elbowing him in the ribs before turning back to Dwayne and starting up a discussion about last night's game.

* * *

"So, Transfer, this is Mickey's Diner," Charlie told her, opening his arms wide and facing the small local hangout.

"Do you really have to call me that?" she huffed, crossing her arms and popping out one hip.

"Yes, we do," Russ said, clapping her on the shoulder and walking off toward the diner with Averman and the Bash Brothers in tow. Allie sighed and walked in with Connie and Dwayne, sliding into the large booth beside Kenny.

Once they'd ordered and gotten their drinks, normality settled over the group and, for the first time, Allie felt completely included. Everyone talked to her, whether it was just small talk or an actual conversation, and no one seemed to radiate hostility towards her.

"How'd you guys like my old team?" Allie asked in a period of silence.

"They were pretty cool, most of them acted a lot like you," Connie laughed. "Emily and Rebecca are kind of like sisters you never had, huh?"

"Pretty much," Allie replied, grinning at the thought of her parents trying to raise all three of them without committing murder. "From what I hear, though, they're a bit nicer than I am."

"Yeah, well, it isn't hard," Julie told her, chuckling when Allie stuck out her tongue.

"So what happened at dinner last night while I was gone?" Allie asked Portman once he'd turned his attention toward her, resting her chin on one hand and looking at him expectantly.

"What do you mean?" he asked, taking a huge bite of his hot dog and looking like a hamster with his cheeks puffed out.

"I come back and find you discussing checking techniques with Nate," she laughed, sipping at her Coke and eating a few fries.

"Yeah, well, he wanted to know how I did some of the stuff in the Goodwill Games," Portman replied, shrugging and looking confused. "What more is there?"

"I just didn't know you had such a talent for making friends, that's all." He threw a wadded-up napkin at her and rolled his eyes, ducking to narrowly avoid being hit with a fistful of ketchup packets. "Did Braxton totally make scene or what, Banks?" she asked, turning to face him.

"What? No, he was fine, behaved himself pretty well," Adam replied.

"Good, I'll give him a treat next time I see him and maybe loosen his collar a bit," Allie joked, making those who were listening laugh quietly.

"So what'd you say to Jason last night?" Charlie asked suddenly, making everyone go silent instantly and turn to look at Allie.

"I told him to take a hike," she said, looking at her plate for a few moments before meeting her captain's eyes. "He can't mess with my team. And you guys _are_ my team now, by the way, whether you like it or not." The last part made them all smile again, and Connie put an arm around her shoulders in a sideways hug.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Dwayne told her, grinning kindly.

"Aw, stop making me feel like you guys actually like me," she laughed, going back to eating her food and returning to normal conversation that was devoid of any gooey feelings.

* * *

"That was so fun!" Allie exclaimed as she, Connie, and Julie walked back to their dorms from the bus stop. "The diner is really cool, and I never would've known about it if it weren't for you guys!"

"Yeah, that's what we're good for: finding cute little restaurants," Julie replied dryly, smiling to convey that it was a joke. "We like going there on the weekends, and I think it was the first place the Ducks took us when we came over for the Goodwill Games a couple years ago."

"Yeah! I remember that, we were just getting to know you guys," Connie recalled, grinning at the memory.

"Well, aren't you guys just a regular Zagat guide? See you at dinner." Allie waved goodbye and unlocked her room, immediately putting down her purse and picking up her backpack. She was off to the library for another study session, having received an English project the day before, and had promptly forgot about it.


	14. Ya Snooze, Ya Loose

Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks, just Allie.

Author's note: I lied. Ha, I totally, out and out lied. You'll see. Anyway, this will be the last post until at least Sunday, because tomorrow I'm going to see the Batman movie, and then attending our local Breaking Dawn release party! Woot! So Saturday will be completely taken up with reading the book and discussing it with my friends, and it usually takes me like three hours to write a chapter, unless I'm really excited. So…make me really excited to write a new one? It'll be a game, so be ready for that, but until then, here's another practice, and a bit of a surprise at the beginning. Reviews are loved! Ha, please don't kill me for lying….

* * *

"Did you have fun this weekend?" Julie asked as she, Connie, and Allie walked along one of the many paths in the courtyard toward the cafeteria on Monday morning.

"Yeah, how'd you like Mickey's?" Fulton added, joining the group with Portman beside him. Allie laughed and hocked her bag further up onto her shoulders, swinging her duffle back and forth only an inch or so above the ground.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to eavesdrop on other people's conversations? This weekend was totally fun, I'm glad you guys decided to include me in it," she replied, opening the door to the cafeteria and walking over to the line, scooping up a tray on her way.

"Well, we decided you weren't a total waste of time," Portman told her, bumping her out of the way and cutting her in line.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, trying to wriggle her way in front of him but ending up being pushed back behind Fulton as well.

"Ya snooze, ya lose." Portman shrugged and continued along the bar, gathering is breakfast and paying at the end with the new prepaid cards parents could buy for their kids. Allie grumbled to herself and picked up some milk from the small freezer placed between the pan of eggs and the tray with three rows of toast that was most likely cold and stale.

"Do they usually do that?" Allie asked Connie, handing her card to the lunch lady manning the cash register and picking her tray up off the shelf.

"Depends," Connie replied, passing a five-dollar bill to the woman as she handed Allie's card back to her.

"That's reassuring," she deadpanned, walking over to join the Duck table and situating herself next to Dwayne. "Good morning!" she chirped brightly, crossing her legs and grinning around the table in a slightly obnoxious manner.

"I think I liked you better when you didn't talk and looked at the table during the whole meal," Charlie joked, causing her to stick her tongue out at him.

"Yeah? Well I liked it better when everyone ignored me and…okay, I'm lying," she laughed, tucking into her tater-tots and scrambled eggs.

"You are _really_ awake for a Monday morning," Luis observed, raising an eyebrow in a practiced manner. Allie shrugged and continued eating, letting the conversations of the others float around her and occasionally making a comment or posing a question.

"Well, see, I think we had such an easy game because you guys have played them before, and know which mistakes to avoid making," Allie pointed out, gesturing to Charlie with her fork as he dissected the Blake Game, looking for errors and questioning their performance.

"Yeah, I guess, but there was just something off about the way they played…," he mused, tapping his fingers against the tabletop and screwing up his face in concentration.

"Okay," she conceded, crossing her eyes at Adam in a mocking, bored way. "I'll be back in a minute, you just continue your little pessimistic, can't-take-a-win-in-stride rant." She stood and brought her tray, dumping it on her way out the door and putting it in the bin beside the register.

* * *

Jason saw Allie leave and stood up, knowing this was his one chance to talk to her without any of those annoying Ducks butting in. Ignoring his friends' questions, he adjusted his jacket and stuffed his hands into his pockets as he walked out of the cafeteria with a determined look on his misleadingly-handsome face.

"Allie!" he called once the door had slammed shut, picking up his pace to catch up with her. She whirled around out of habit, but immediately paled and fled in the opposite direction. "Hey, wait a minute!" He sprinted over and grabbed her shoulder, turning her around and looking down at her with a pasted-on, falsely happy smile.

"What?" she snapped, shrugging his hand off and stepping back a few paces so she wouldn't have to tilt her head back so far.

"I just wanted to, you know, apologize for the way I acted the other day," he replied lamely, rubbing the back of his neck in an embarrassed way. "Banks and I have some history, but it wasn't fair to bring it out when you were there."

"Oh yeah, so you'll just harass him in private from now on?" she asked angrily, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. He gave a submissive shrug and blinked helplessly.

"What's between me and Banks is totally irrelevant, I'm here to talk about you and me," he said, using one of the oldest lines in the history of the world. Allie scoffed loudly, grinning in disbelief.

"You didn't just say that, did you? Please tell me I'm hearing things." He shrugged again and she shook her head, putting a hand to her forehead. "Adam is my teammate, and I really don't appreciate you acting like a total jackass towards him, so I don't see how we're going to resolve this."

"You'd take his side over mine?" Jason asked incredulously, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. She just looked back at him, willing an epiphany to burst into his slow thoughts.

"He doesn't act like he was raised by very gossipy girls who enjoy torturing people," she answered when he didn't seem to get it. "I don't really know why I ever thought I could like you." Shaking her head tiredly, she turned to leave and got about halfway down the hall before he began to speak again.

"So you don't forgive me?" he yelled after her desperately, the wheels turning in his brain with the beginnings of a plan as she made an affirmative gesture over her shoulder.

* * *

"He did _what_ now?" Connie cried as they got ready for practice that afternoon, looking up from where she was tying her skates and making a grossed-out face.

"Yeah, that was my reaction as well," Allie responded, rolling her eyes and securing her socks over her shin guards. "I can't believe he thought he was going to make me forgive him by saying this little bit about how he was sorry for saying those things while I was there. It's like, why would I be any happier if he were doing them when it was just the two of them?"

"I don't know how he hid it for two weeks, you'd think we would've noticed the stench of his rotten personality way before now," Connie growled, shaking her head and tugging on her practice jersey.

"Ha, yeah, you'd think." They walked out to the rink where Adam and Charlie were taking practice shots at one of the goals, in which they had placed two orange traffic cones to act as an inanimate goalie. Allie skated out to center ice and dropped her gear so she could do warm-up laps, wrapping a hair band around her makeshift ponytail.

The rest of the team skated out within about five minutes, and Orion entered through one of the penalty boxes as per usual. Retrieving her gear, Allie lined up with everyone else and waited for the day's instructions.

"Okay, we're going to be doing some endurance exercises, and I want to start with the skating version of the Indian Run," Orion barked, pointing to the wall in a silent order for them to line up against it. "When I blow my whistle, I want the person in the back to skate up to the front and keep pace with everyone else. Understood?" he asked, placing his whistle at his lips. After a short blast, they were off at a manageable pace with Charlie in the lead, just like during cool-down laps.

Another blow sent Julie skating up to the front, struggling with her cumbersome pads but managing well enough. Each leader only spent about a lap in the position, then Orion would replace them. The whistle soon became the death march to the tired team, and their speed decreased after about the third cycle of players.

"Come on, guys, we can do it," Charlie huffed from behind Julie, resting his stick on his knees and gliding for a few moments. Everyone pushed harder and were intensely relieved when Orion blew three times as a signal to rest. Collapsing, Allie breathed hard and wiggled her stiff toes, trying to remember that they only had half of practice left, and convincing herself that she could get up and not die.

"All right, get up, Ducks," Orion ordered mercilessly, clapping twice and skating over to them. "We're going to run some skating courses, then do a scrimmage, and by that time it'll be quitting time." At the mention of quitting, they brightened and were able to get themselves up and skating again.

The new skating courses weren't as taxing as the one in the first practice, but there were certainly those few that couldn't complete it properly. As Fulton skated back over to the group shaking his head, Allie frowned and shifted over to him.

"Hey, when you're banking in that turn, try shifting your weight a little to your inside foot so you aren't relying on your skates to direct you," she told him quietly, her eyes following Russ on his progression around the small cones Orion had set up. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him nod in understanding, and pulled one corner of her mouth up. "Just focus, you're good except that you look like you forget what you're doing sometimes."

"Yeah, okay," he said, nodding again and straightening his shoulders a bit. During the next course, he seemed more focused and completed it without problems, smiling at Allie as he passed her on his way to the end of the line. She gave him a little thumbs-up and laughed to herself quietly.

The scrimmage was extremely unfair, or at least it was in Allie's eyes. Orion had put Portman, Charlie, _and_ Adam on the same team, leaving Allie's side to fight hard but lose inevitably. On their way back to the locker room, Allie fell into step beside Adam and sighed tiredly, looking at him in playful disgust.

"You know, you just aren't allowed to be so good and then have other good players on your team," she told him, hanging her helmet on the end of her stick and sliding her hands out of her gloves.

"Oh yeah? Where does it say that in the rulebook?" he asked, looking down at her with a smirk.

"Section Four, Subsection B," she replied with a laugh, leaving him at his locker and walking down to the end where her things were sticking out from under the bench. Connie gave her an odd look as she passed, but Allie barely noticed since her entire brain was focused on getting to her duffle and finding her mini bottle of Motrin.

* * *

Allie emerged from the locker room with a slight limp, favoring her right ankle, as she had somehow twisted it while removing her skates and now had a bump on the top of it that made it impossible to wear shorts since someone would think she had a twin growing out of her foot. She exhaled dramatically, fancying that if she tried hard enough, she might actually get out of homework for the next day because she had to get her ankle seen to.

"You aren't going to get out of Norman's assignment," Julie warned, passing her and giving her a knowing look as she exited the arena. Allie muttered a quick "Crap!" under her breath, then decided that she had better get back to her dorm and finish the report before dinner began. Her only hope of getting back before Jason got out of his football practice--a soggy second to his hockey obsession, but he took what he could get, as he put it--and just happened to "run into her" was to go the back way and avoid all major sidewalks.

As she turned the corner to cut behind the Science building, Dwayne caught up to her and fell into step beside her.

"Why are you going this way?" he asked, puzzled by her shifty eyes and stealthily quiet footfalls.

"Oh, just trying to avoid meeting the football team on their way back from practice," she replied, laughing guiltily.

"Um, again, why?" he persisted, speeding up to cut in front of her and walking backwards so he could see her face.

"It's just that Jason guy, he followed me out of the cafeteria this morning and tried to talk it out with me," she sighed, waving a hand around dismissively.

"Let us know if he does it again," he demanded, narrowing his eyes menacingly. She laughed and tugged him back to walk beside her, shaking her head.

"The whole tough guy thing so isn't you," she giggled, bumping him with her hip playfully. He grinned and slung a friendly arm around her shoulders, walking her back to the dorms the usual way after they'd cleared the Science building.


	15. Don't Get Too Excited

**Author's Note: **I'm so totally sorry! This is probably the longest I've gone without posting, and it's totally annoying because I have all these little bees of ideas that buzz around in my head and won't let me sleep! I know you're probably going, "Well, why don't you write, then?!" Simple. You don't want me to use these ideas in this story, because they totally don't fit. At all. Trust me, I'm so doing you a favor by not pounding out a chapter with the state of mind I'm in. I've just read _Breaking Dawn_, and half my ideas are all gooey grossness, and the other half are all sarcastic and totally un-Duck-like. And yeah, most of you are going, "THIS IS JUST AN AUTHOR'S NOTE?!" and yeah again, I know they're technically not allowed, but I'm assuming that those of you who read my story aren't going on my homepage.

So, the long and short of it is: I don't really know when the next chapter is going to come out. I'm just as in the dark as you are. I've started it about twelve times, and then I just erase it or leave it alone and read something else that probably irritates those bees. But, this I can promise: the next chapter will be at _least_ three-thousand words. PROMISE! And, if it'll make anyone feel better, I'll give you a little surprise about what's coming up soon when I post…. It'll be fun! And it should actually placate some of you Dwayne Lovers! For now…. No more can be said, and I have a feeling I've totally made some of you mad, but thanks for all the hits, guys! I've gotten almost four-hundred of them since the last post! I love you guys! Even though sometimes I kind of don't show it by not posting. I'm working on it! Rant over, feel free to hate or not as you wish. (PS--that wasn't too short, was it? Tah!)


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